RenX (Gmax) / 3DSMax
Renegade Evolution Tutorial
Animated Computer Screens
By StoneRook
Project: Duplicate the moving computer screens as seen in MP/SP Renegade buildings computer screens using vertex settings only.
Materials: atr_blips.tga atr_scem01.tga hnd_wrksta.w3d (for reference)
All found in always.dat
Programs: RenX
W3D Viewer
Commando
Renegade (LAN Mode – Mod Package)
This tutorial assumes that you have working knowledge of the programs needed.
This means you know how to use them – make levels in Commando – setup a single player LAN game.
Rev. 1.0
02/08/2003
This is the moving computer screen in the Hand of Nod - hnd_wrksta.w3d.
Take a look at it – the color bars move up and down and right to left.
The pattern of the background will take on the colors as the front color texture flows across it.
It’s a simple mesh plane – with two applications of texture (2 pass) – and the moving texture is simply a vertex setting.
The trick is – you have to apply two (2) UVW’s to the mesh – one per texture. You also need to rotate the second one a certain way to get the moving color bar effect.
If you just apply the vertex settings (as per wdump) – you will not get the same effect
So – here is how Westwood did it.
Step one:
In Renx – make a mesh – 2m,2m – segments 1,1– use the front view to make it in.
Name it Cpu_test
Step Two:
With the mesh selected – Hit the ‘m’ key.
Set your Pass Count to two (2)
Name the Material cpu_scrn
Select the Pass 1 tab for the next step.
Step Three:
Set this texture to atr_scem01.tga (this is the background texture)
Next hit the Shader tab (for Pass 1)
Step Four:
Set your Blend to Opaque – as seen above.
Step Five:
Set your VM to the following: (R,G,
A 255,255,255
D 255,255,255
S 0,0,0 (you could set it to 0,255,0 if you want a glowing neon)
E 255,255,255
O 1.0
T 0.0
S 1.0
Your UV is one (1) - for this texture
Step Six:
Select Pass 2 for next step
Select atr_blips.tga for this texture.
Hit Display on this texture (this is the moving one)
Select the Shader tab for the next step.
Step Seven:
Set your Blend Mode to Multiply – the rest of the settings should be as shown above.
Step Eight:
Set your VM to 255,255,255 down.
And your o/t/s are default.
Set your Stage 0 Mapping to type Linear Offset
Your args will be UPerSec=.1 (caps are important)
Set your UV to two (2)
Assign the material to the mesh – then x out of this dialog.
Step Nine:
Now – assign a UVW map modifier – and then on the Channel/Map Channel roll down – select 2.
This allows us just to play with the pass two texture – since we put it to UVW 2 under the vertex settings.
Now we have to fix the texture to show correctly.
Step Ten:
First – flip the map – U tile – check the Flip box. (this is so the map will display correctly.
Second – make the UVW map a bit larger than the mesh – you can play with the settings to get different settings – I made mine 2.5m length and 2.5m width. (different sizes – different effects)
Then – use the use the UVW mapping gizmo – and the select and rotate gizmo to spin the UVW map 90° on the Z axis. (Y on the UVW map)
So the UVW map should look like this:
Now – with that done – unclick the UVW map option – right click on the mesh – and change it to a editable mesh – this will collapse the mod stack and lock in your settings.
Now – export the mesh as terrain – and name it cpu_screen.w3d
Call up W3D viewer – and you should see the a moving computer screen – just like the Westwood one’s.
This is something I whipped up – I changed the background texture…
So – by changing the background picture – adding some colors from the atr_blips – you can make your own custom cpu screens.
Photoshop is invaluable in this – you can use filters to make the "negative " of your line are to make interesting displays. (I use antimatter)
Info for this tutorial was taken from the supplied Westwood© meshes and materials.
The rest was using the knowledge given by doing the Gmax© tutorials.
And the rest – a lot of Jolt© soda….
If you find this useful – please let me know.
StoneRook out…
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