UV Mapping the Image Onto
the Surface

1. Now open the Surface Editor and make sure
   the Terrain surface is selected. Click the Color attribute's Texture
   button to add a texture to your terrain.
   
   The Texture Editor offers you abundant options
   for total control over your surfaces (truly
   powerful stuff!). The default Layer Type is Image
   Map, which is what we want, so leave all
   the settings the way they are.
   
2. Select UV from the Projection pop-up
   menu. Next, select the TerrainUV map from the UVMap pop-up
   menu.
   
   Since we don't have an image loaded yet, choose (load
   image) from the Image pop-up menu.
   Load the color texture image using the file
   dialog that appears. The image should appear
   in the preview window.
   
3. Set the Width Tile and Height
   Tile to Reset.
   
4. Since you are using UV mapping, all of the
   texture positioning work is done. Click Use
   Texture to close the panel. You can close
   the Surface Editor now as well.
   

If you had used Planer for Projection (instead of UV), you would need to also make sure Texture Axis is set to Y. You would also need to click Automatic Sizing to let LighWave figure out how to fit the texture exactly to the size of your surface.

1. Make sure the Rendering Style of your
   Perspective viewport is set to Texture (you
   can select this from the viewport's titlebar),
   so you can see your object textured in all
   its glory! You might want to set your Texture
   Resolution (Display Options panel, Layout
   tab) to 512 to see the nicest display
   possible. (Figure
   
   
   Figure 8
   Applying a Magic Face Lift
   So you're looking at your terrain and saying, "yeah,
   but it's flat!, and that's a lot of polys to
   try to lift and conform to that terrain texture." Well,
   rest your weary head my friend, we're moving
   on to the magic.
   
   As we discussed earlier, the little W button
   in the bottom-right corner of Modeler's interface
   stands for weight maps. LightWave can
   make extensive use of these maps. You can apply
   them to points in many ways, including painting them
   on with the Airbrush tool.
   
   These maps are sometimes used to control the
   amount of influence a bone has on an object.
   But another way to use weight maps can go unnoticed.
   Many of the modify tools let you use a weight
   map for the tool's falloff! (see Figure 9)
   
   
   Figure 9
   A weight map transforms a tool as simple as
   the Move tool into a multi-variable point
   displacement device ! (In layman's terms:
   the Move tool set with a weight map falloff moves
   the object points at different strengths, based
   on the weight value for each point.) A point
   with a 100% weight (colored red in a viewport
   set to the Weight Shade rendering style)
   would move with the Move tool 100%, while a point
   with a 50% weight would lag and be affected only
   half as much.
   With the Airbrush tool (Map > Airbrush),
   you could actually spray the values onto
   the points to control the modification amount
   that you want. This is a good tool for freeform
   application of weights and vertex colors, but
   in our case, we want more precise control over
   the application of our weights. Enter the Texture
   VMap command.
   Basically, Texture VMap lets you texture your
   object's weights or vertex colors using the standard
   Texture Editor. You can use all of the images,
   procedurals, and gradients your little heart
   desires. How cool is that?!
   
2. Go ahead and choose Map > Weight & Color: More > Texture
   VMap.
   
   The VMap Type pop-up menu lets you texture
   either a weight, morph target, or vertex color
   map. Choose Weight Map and enter "Terrain
   Weight" into the VMap Name field.
   
3. Click the Texture button at the bottom
   of the panel to open the Texture Editor. The Layer
   Type will be Image Map, which is
   what we want. Since this is a straight-down
   projection, set the Projection to Planer.
   Select (load image) from the Image pop-up
   menu and load your grayscale terrain image.
   It should show up in the preview window.
   
4. Set Width Tile and Height Tile to Reset and
   turn off Pixel Blending and Texture
   Antialiasing—this is important because
   any blurring of the image will cause unwanted
   falloff around the edges of your object.
   
5. Select Y as the Texture Axis for
   mapping and click Automatic Sizing to
   perfectly size the texture to your surface.
   Now, simply close the Texture Editor by clicking
   on the little "x" in the top right corner.
   Also close the Texture VMap panel.
   
6. Now, to check that everything is kosher,
   switch your perspective viewport to the Weight
   Shade Rendering Style. You should see the
   variations of weight values across the surface
   of your object matching the terrain. (Figure
   10)
   
   
   Figure 10
   
7. We'll use this weight map to control the
   Move tool with great precision. Make sure you're
   in the Point edit mode. Choose Modify > Move and
   open the Numerics panel by pressing the n key.
   Set the Falloff mode to Weight Map.
   
8. Place your mousepointer in the Back viewport
   and hold the Ctrl key to constrain your movement
   to one axis. Click and drag up until you've
   moved points 40m in the Y axis. (Watch the
   info display in the bottom-left corner to see
   when Y=40.)
   
   Now take a look at that! Your points were modified
   by the Move tool based on their weight (your
   precise grayscale image) to form a perfect
   fit for your terrain. Check it out by switching
   your perspective viewport back to the Texture Rendering
   Style.
   
   Look at how the texture drapes perfectly over
   your texture, and how the road rests nicely
   on the flat area you specifically painted into
   your grayscale image for that very purpose.
   See how the cliffside juts out of the water.
   (I added slight waves in the my grayscale image.
   Notice how they conform to the contours of
   the winding cliffs.) Nice. (Figure 11)
   
   
   Figure 11. Turned 90 degrees
   

Are you starting to get ideas? Can you think
of other ways to use this procedure? Let me
tell you, there are dozens of different scenarios
where this basic procedure can dramatically
speed up your productivity. I keep a folder
full of gradient ramp images (NorthSouth, EastWest,
Radial, Radial Square, etc.) for quick and
precise weight-map projections using Texture
VMap.
If the UV-mapped image seems to stretch unacceptably
in certain spots, go back into Modeler and simply
select the offending points for those areas.
The points will also become highlighted in your
UV Texture viewport. You can then massage their
position on the UV grid to alleviate the stretching.
Remember too, that we used a simple flat subdivided
plane with even divisions across the entire object.
Better results could be achieved by using the
terrain as a background image and repositioning
the points to conform to the shape of the road
and cliffside. (For even more precision, you
could create the plane from scratch.)
Projecting Vertex Colors

1. Try this just for fun. Go back into Texture
   VMap, but this time select Vertex Color as
   the VMap Type. Name it "Terrain Vcolor."
   
2. Open the Texture Editor and apply the same
   settings as before (using Planer Projection),
   but load your color terrain image into the Image pop-up
   menu. Close the panels.
   
3. Open the Surface Editor and go to the Advanced
   tab. On the Vertex Color Map pop-up menu, select
   the Terrain Vcolor map that you just created.
   
4. Back on the Basic Tab, click the Color attribute's Texture
   button. Uncheck the image map layer in the
   layer list to temporarily disable the UV map
   texture. Click on Use Texture to close the
   Texture Editor.
   
5. On the Surface Editor's Basic tab, change Luminosity to
   100% and Diffuse to 0%. This lights
   the surface using only its own vertex colors.
   Close the Surface panel and look at your Terrain
   now in the perspective view.
   

Figure 12
Not a bad approximation, eh? Just think, in
the games world where texture space is
a scarce commodity, this terrain is fully colored,
with a fair amount of texture detail, and it
uses no image maps! Now that's efficiency. You
can always increase the polygon count in areas
where you need more detail.
Alternatively, you could UV map a color texture
onto specific surface areas where you need a
more realistic-looking surface. For the road,
you might UV map a tile-able road image on that
part of the terrain.
The design might also call for a tunnel, which
you can easily create in another layer and use
it to do a Boolean subtract on the cliff.
A Boolean operation?! "That would completely
destroy my UVs," you say, and you would
be absolutely right, if you were using any other
3D package. But fortunately, you're using LightWave,
where UVs are handled so elegantly that you can
cut, slice, hack, and otherwise mangle your UV
textured objects to your heart's content. LightWave will
not only keep your original UVs intact, but will
also add more to geometry that is shifted or
beveled out from the existing model! In fact,
the ability to completely unweld an object and
merge the points back together later without
a hiccup in the UV mapping is used to great advantage.
But that is, unfortunately, a tutorial for another
time.
We have only scratched the surface of the possibilities
with these simple case ideas. However, it is
on these very basics that game content is built
upon, enhanced to fit virtually any design and
delivered with tremendous efficiency using LightWave
3D. Having so much power, so accessible,
is the very reason why LightWave will be
leading the way in the evolution of not only
quality look and feel, but in the entire game
development process.
Color terrain
image
Grayscale
terrain
Terrain LightWave object]