Vertex Painting in Gmax/Renx

Article for Battle for Middle-earth BFME, Battle for Middle-earth II BFME 2, Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch-king ROTWK

robnkarla

Category:	Graphics
Level:	Expert
Created:	Sunday April 6, 2008 - 0:31
Updated:	Sunday April 6, 2008 - 1:50
Views:	844
Summary:	Use Vertex Painting for Banner Glows and More

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I've been asking everyone about how to do vertext coloring for w3d files to create the soft edges for different FX and I never found an answer to what I've wanted to do outside of hex editing. There are so many models where EA uses vertex shading/alpha painting that I knew it must be possible. I started tinkering around with some modifiers and finally got it to work the way I want.

As an example of what I mean by vertex painting here are two screenshots:

Without Vertex Painting - Notice the harsh edges that look unrealistic and when in game they are quite distracting. Anyone who's done a custom banner carrier has seen dealt with this.
User image

With Vertex Painting - Softer edges, similar fx can be done with alpha channels when there is no rotate/linear offset or other mappings.
User image

While I'll demonstrate the vertex painting use for the banner glow, the use is much broader (one example being cloud layers in custom skies).

So onto the banner glow....

Comments

Display order: Newest first

Nertea (Team Chamber Member) - Thursday April 10, 2008 - 1:58

I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising as Renegade did support vertex painting, but it still suprrised me :P.

Good find.

Rob38 (Administrator) - Sunday April 6, 2008 - 22:47

This make my life a whole lot easier as I hate using hex editor :)

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