Good way to generate detail texture distribution?

[Antero]

The map development tutorial (http://springrts.com/wiki/SSMF:_Distribution_Map) does show a nice picture of how a detail texture map is supposed to look, but I'm still not sure of how to get to this end result. Is the best way just to paint over your texturemap with a red, green, and blue brush? Or is there a more sophisticated way?

Thank you.

[Beherith]

The free edition of World machine basic is more than enough. Use height and slope selectors multiplied by perlin noise.

[Antero]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[Forboding Angel]

Nooo, it is Channels! Not Colors! Meh, if it's all on the same layer I guess it doesn't matter *shrug*

In l3dt, export the attributes map. That is far better than what behe suggested because it will match your texturing exactly.

Make sure to flip the switch in attribute map export options to colormapped true.

[Funkencool]

Not to step on toes but wouldn't alpha maps be more fit for the job?

[Beherith]

Funken, what do you mean by alpha maps?

[SirArtturi]

I do it hardcore:
-Photoshop
-Texturemap
-Select grass(flatland) area (color selection)
-Refine selection edges
-New layer
-Select color channel
-Fill layer
-Run cloud render, play with different filters, do hand painting etc. to diffuse the filling (This method makes your different detailtextures to mix nicely, for example, you would like to have two different grass details so that they dont look repetative but rather blend together nicely)
-Select Cliffs by inverting last selection
-Repeat the method
-Finally you can do, for example, a global detailtexture (4th one, the alpha channel) by selecting every other channels and inverting the selection.

You are done.

It's a busy method, but this way you can control everything :)

[Beherith]

Artturis method is a good one, 100% recommended. I do pretty much the same thing but with a different tool.

[smoth]

WM free's only limitation is the texture size and no multi-thread support right?

behe, want me to make a slatmap generator in wm2?

[Antero]

Thanks for the detailed description Artturi! Cloud render indeed makes the texture look a lot more organic and non-repetitive.

[Funkencool]

o sorry behe never seen reply but I was referring to alpha maps in l3dt, they're especially for this job, which are based on the attributes map(so texture must be made in l3dt) but customizable to your liking. Here's a link to the l3dt wiki topic for more depth.

edit: I should add one could also set their climate parameters(in l3dt) so the generated attributes map(and therefore alpha) closely match a texture made externally