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1626 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
Decals
Decalsareusefulformappingsingledesigns,small
elements such as stickers, or light switches.
A 2D map used as a decal appears only once
and is not repeated as with tiling. Wherever t he
decal doesn’t appear on the surface, the surface is
rendered as a basic material, with the component
colors specified at the material level. With map
trees, a decal m ight appear on top of a different
bitmap or other map type.
Decal mapping
Pr ocedur es
To set tiling:
1.
In the Coordinates rollout, make sure Tile is
turned on for the U or V coordinate, or for
both.
2. Set the Tiling value for the corresponding
coordinates.
IntheMaterialEditor,thesampleslotchanges
to show the tiling value you chose.
• The Tiling value is the number of times
the bitmap repeats along the specified
dimension. A value of 1.0, the defau lt, maps
the bitmap exactly once; a value of 2.0 maps
the bitmap twice, and so on. Fractional
values map a fract ional portion of the
bitmap in addition to copies of the whole
map. For example, a value of 2.5 maps the
bitmap two and a half times.
• Tilingvalueslessthanoneincreasethe
size of the map relative to the object. For
example, a value of 0.5 maps half of the
bitmap.
• TilingisuniformifboththeUandV
dimensions are tiled by the sam e amount.
To preview the effect of tiling:
• IntheMaterialEditor,usetheTilingflyout
to choose a 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x tiling preview.
The button you choose changes tiling in the
active sample slot to 1
.0, 2.0, 3.0, or 4.0 in both
UandV.
The flyout setting has no effect on the material
or its mapping. It does not change the Tiling
value or the check box
setting. It only helps you
preview the effect of chang ing these settings.
To set mirroring:
1.
On the Coordinates rollout, make sure Mirror
is turned on for the
UorVcoordinate,orboth.
Mirror and Tile are e
xclusive settings: if one
is set when you choose t he other, the original
setting tur ns off.
2. Set the Mirror value for the corresponding
coordinate or coo
rdinates.
The material prev
iew changes to show the
Mirror value you chose.
To create a d ecal:
1.
In the Material Editor, choose a bitmap as a
diffuse map.
2. On the map’s Coord
inates rollout, turn off
both Mirror and Tile for both the U and V
coordinate s. Change the mapping to Planar
from Object XYZ.
3. Adjust the U and
V Tiling parameters to scale
the decal.