SC2Mapster

Hello.

Another day back on SC2 Mapping, another probably very stupid and easy-to-answer question to be asked.. I've searched a bit but all i've found is either connected to something different (team decals for the clan features etc.) or just makes no sense/has no real answer so far. So i've decided to create another thread asking for help.

What i want to do is seemingly simple. I want to take a picture that i've created in photoshop and just place it onto the terrain. That's it.

So, thinking about it i've considered checking out how the decals work - and i'm talking about the editor decals, like arrows, 'do not enter' sign's or the protoss decals that all are basicall just a picture that's placed on the terrain. Having a look at them in the data editor confused me more than gave me answers though since they seem to consist of one model (even though they have several variations) but that model is empty..

Ofcourse, i am totally not understanding how they work and that's now what i'm asking for.

Also, while searching i've seen people saying to use 'splat' actors instead of decals due to low graphics settings making problems on decals, but then again this is something that i'm not understanding either :/

I've tried to place a splat actor per trigger at a designated point, but it just never shows ingame (my settings are maxed out), and the splat's that i could choose from were all building related, the ground textures i guess, but nothing seems to work or show up here.

Anyone able the help me out on this one, explaining how i could simply add a fricking image to the map?

Thanks!

@DrSuperEvil: Go

Hey, thanks so far.

I've checked that map, and i just had to correct the queen's commandcard and it worked. At least i saw the big area symbol after "upgrading" the tumor.

But, and this is what i wanted to try before i try that way, i'd like to work with triggers here since it's easier in the end to add content this way and so i read the thread you mentioned.

So, i tried the very basic idea of how i thought it might work out.. I created a "texture" (some lines in paint.net, saved as .tga, converted to .dds), imported this picture and created a texture out of it.

Then i placed a decal doodad on the map, added a trigger like this:

Actor - Send message "TextureSelectById testDecal" to actor (Actor for decaltest [54.50, 56.50])

And expected it to work, but ofcourse it does not :< Would have been to easy anyways.. ^^

So far i think it might have to do with these "slots" but thats just an assumption.. Is there even a way to make it work like i want to, or do i have to change the unit's/doodad's effects manually?

edit: after some more testing i've been somewhat successful, but not really..

I've been able to change out a "protoss decal" to my imported picture with the use of the posted trigger. I really just had to refer to a valid slot on my texture, in this case generic01 for that specific decal variation.

Problem now is, these protoss decals are glowing heavily and if i replace the texture it glows aswell, and i did not find a way to disable this glow. (don't know where, there is nothing in the doodad's effects)

Doing all of tis on the normal decal though seems not possible because the normal decals seems not to have slots that i could refer to. Where the Protoss Decal has slots for every of it's 6 or 7 variations, the "normal" decal with it's 29 variations does not have any slots declared i could refer to.

Any ideas?

Quote from DrSuperEvil: Go

You set the decal model up so it could be texture swapped?

Under actor events use a Set Team Color event action to set all the HDR multipliers to 0 and then a Set Tint Color event action to adjust the HDR multiplier of your texture.

Read the texture select by ID tutorial since slots are whatever you choose to use to refer to a specific texture and is all in how you set the model up.

Yeah, i've placed a decal so i can swap it's model and have my texture in it's place.

I've tried to change the glow now like you've said but that leads to no satisfying result. Yes, i can lower the glow with it, but as soon as i set the HDR to 0, the texture just doesn't show at all anymore. Setting it to 0.1 or 0.01 does not work aswell since it makes the whole texture transparent. So this seems not to work, at least in this way.

I've understood the slot part, but the normal decals simply don't seem to use any slots what "forces" me to use the protoss decal.

I'll try to use the actor events now on the normal decal to see where that leads me, but so far i'm running in circles :<

If only i could refer to one of the normal decal's variations, but like i've said these don't seem to have slot's assigned...

Okay, first of all thanks for helping me on this one, i've read many posts from you while i was searching things related to this topic and i'm pretty sure it's annoying after a while to repeat everything to new people asking basically the same questions.

Nonetheless i'm just not able to figure this out, even after reading through tons of threads and tutorials aswell.

So, i've scrapped the decal idea and moved on to splats. Seems like the easier variant even though i'm still not able to produce something satisfying.

I looked at your infest_creep map and tried to understand the process. So far i've been able to recreate some things but i kinda don't really understand it, and besides that all of this is connected to a behavior what makes it a bit counterproductive since i don't want to add a unit first to attach said behavior.

Right now i just copy&pasted parts of your map, added that behavior to an SCV and changed the effects to behavior.create instead of .on, and now the scv drives around with the texture around it - but annoyingly enough, the scv scales with the settings and im just confused more as before..

Trying to create that splat at a point seemed like the best idea, but that just didn't work - and i don't understand why. I create a nuke splat, try to change it's texture by id per actor message but then just nothing shows. Except an error telling me there is no slot main.diffuse to refer to. Trying others didn't result in anything other than different errors and no texture showing up.

This is probably asked too much, but you obviously know what you're doing when it comes to this texture swapping thing etc., could you maybe create a simple map and try to create what i'm looking for so i'm able to understand this? I've been sitting here for hours now and i just cannot do it :<

To recall what i've been trying to achieve, all i want is to set up a point and show a clear unchanged (glow or tint wise) imported picture, possibly via trigger.

I really hope you, or maybe someone else is able to help me here since i'm getting kinda insane trying to work this out... :x

Dude, thank you so much! This finally helps me to understand this whole thing and make it work like i want it to work. Perfect!

Thank you very much, and you'll be credited in the project when it gets released :>