Textures & Materials - Making it Look Real

Theory: What is a Texture?

At its core, a texture is simply a 2D image that gets wrapped around a 3D object, like wrapping paper on a gift box. In Alife Virtual, these textures are what give objects their appearance—the grain on a piece of wood, the pattern on fabric, or the rivets on a metal plate. Every prim you create has multiple faces, and you can apply a different texture to each one.

The viewer's rendering engine uses a process called UV mapping to figure out how to project the flat image onto the curved or flat surfaces of your 3D prim. You don't need to understand the complex math behind it, but you do need to know how to control it using the tools provided in the Firestorm viewer.

Step-by-Step: Applying Your First Texture

Let's get our hands dirty and apply a texture to a simple cube. We'll provide some basic textures for you in class, but you can also use any full-permission texture from your inventory.

1. Create a Prim: Right-click on the ground and select Create. A wand icon will appear. Click the ground again to rez a default plywood cube.
2. Open the Edit Window: Right-click your new cube and select Edit from the pie menu. You can also press Ctrl+3 on your keyboard with the object selected. The Edit window will appear.
3. Navigate to the Texture Tab: In the Edit window, find and click on the Texture tab. This is your primary control panel for everything we'll do in this course.
4. Select a Texture: Click on the large texture swatch box (it will show the default plywood texture). This opens the Texture Picker window. You can search your inventory here. Find a texture (e.g., a brick or wood texture) and click OK. The texture will immediately apply to your entire cube.
5. Applying to a Single Face: Notice the radio buttons at the top of the Texture tab: "Select Face". Click this. Now, when you click on a face of your cube in the world, only that face will be highlighted. With one face selected, click the texture swatch again, choose a different texture, and click Apply. You'll see that only the selected face changes. This is fundamental for creating detailed objects.

Key Concepts: The Texture Controls

Now that you can apply and align textures, let's explore how to modify them directly on the object. These techniques add mood, function, and a layer of dynamic visual interest to your creations.

Advanced Technique: Color Tinting

You don't always need a separate texture for every color variation. You can tint existing textures to achieve a vast range of looks. This is memory-efficient and powerful.

How it works: In the Texture tab, you'll find a Color box. Clicking this opens a color picker. The color you choose is multiplied with the texture's own colors.

• Tinting a white texture with blue will make it pure blue.
• Tinting a grey texture with blue will make it a dark, desaturated blue.
• Tinting a colored texture (like wood) will shift its hue. Tinting brown wood with red will give it a cherry finish.

Example: Creating a Blue Brick Wall

1. Apply a standard red brick texture to a wall.
2. Click the Color box in the Texture tab.
3. Select a light blue color from the color wheel.
4. Click Apply. Your red bricks will now be tinted with blue, resulting in a purplish, cool-toned brick. The white mortar will become light blue.

Advanced Technique: Transparency (Alpha)

Transparency allows light to pass through an object, making it partially or fully invisible. This is controlled by the Transparency setting, which corresponds to the "alpha channel" of a texture. A value of 0% is fully opaque, while 100% is fully invisible.

Practical Examples:

• Creating a Glass Window

  Apply a very faint, slightly smudged white texture to a prim. In the Texture tab, set the Transparency slider to around 80-90%. This creates a realistic, semi-transparent glass effect that isn't perfectly invisible.

• Using Textures with Built-in Alpha

  Some textures, like a chain-link fence or a leaf, have transparent parts built into the image file (a TGA or PNG file). When you apply such a texture, the viewer automatically makes the transparent parts see-through. You can still use the Transparency slider to make the entire object (e.g., the metal links of the fence) even more transparent for a ghostly effect.

Advanced Technique: Glow

Glow makes a prim's surface appear to emit its own light. It's a fantastic effect for lamps, magical items, neon signs, and computer screens.

The Glow setting in the Texture tab is a slider that goes from 0 to 1. A small amount (0.1-0.2) gives a subtle luminescence, while a higher value (0.5-1.0) creates a strong, vibrant bloom effect.

Example: Creating a Simple Neon Bar

1. Create a long, thin cylinder prim.
2. In the Texture tab, set its texture to pure white. You can do this by clicking the texture box, selecting "Blank" and then clicking the Color box and setting it to white.
3. Click the Color box and tint the prim to a vibrant color, like hot pink or electric blue.
4. Now, adjust the Glow slider. Start with 0.3 and increase it until you get the desired neon effect. The prim will now appear to be a glowing tube of light.

Advanced Application: What Are Materials?

Welcome to the cutting edge of in-world graphics! Materials take texturing to the next level. While a standard texture (also called a 'Diffuse' map) provides the color of a surface, Materials add information about its physical properties: how bumpy it is and how it reflects light.

To see materials, you MUST enable the "Advanced Lighting Model" in your viewer. Go to Me > Preferences > Graphics > General and check the box for Advanced Lighting Model. Your world will look dramatically different and much more realistic!

Materials are composed of two extra texture maps:

• Normal Map (Bumpiness): This is a special, usually purple-and-blue looking texture. It tells the rendering engine how to simulate bumps, cracks, grooves, and details on a flat surface without actually adding any geometry. This is what makes a flat brick texture look like the bricks actually have depth and the mortar is recessed.
• Specular Map (Shininess): This is a grayscale texture that controls how light reflects off the surface. White areas on the map are very shiny (like polished chrome), while black areas are completely matte (like rubber). Grey values create varying levels of sheen in between. This is how you create brushed metal with some shiny scratches, or wet pavement that has both reflective puddles and dull asphalt.

Real-World Scenario: Applying a Full Material Set

Let's apply a set of material textures to a prim. You will need three corresponding textures: a Diffuse (the color), a Normal (the bumps), and a Specular (the shininess).

1. Prepare your Prim: Create a large, flat cube to serve as a wall.
2. Apply the Diffuse Map: In the Texture tab, apply the main color texture (e.g., `cobblestone_d.png`) just like you learned in Lesson 1.
3. Apply the Normal Map: Click the dropdown menu that says "Texture (Diffuse)" and select "Bumpiness (Normal)". The texture swatch will now have a blueish tint. Click it and select your corresponding Normal map (e.g., `cobblestone_n.png`). You should immediately see depth and detail appear on your flat surface!
4. Apply the Specular Map: Click the dropdown again and select "Shininess (Specular)". The texture swatch will have a silvery tint. Click it and select your Specular map (e.g., `cobblestone_s.png`).
5. Fine-Tune the Effect: Now, play with the two new sliders that have appeared:
   • Glossiness: This controls the sharpness of the reflection defined by your specular map. Low glossiness gives a soft, wide sheen. High glossiness gives a sharp, mirror-like reflection.
   • Environment: This controls the intensity of environmental reflections. A higher value will make the surface reflect the sky and surrounding objects more strongly, great for polished metals or wet surfaces.

Best Practices for Materials