Custom Decals

Decal blood splats

Decals are textures which can be mapped to environment objects & terrain. Their main use is adding detail and variation to the scenery. Blood splats, ambient shadows and footprints use them too.

Files

To create a custom decal, the following files are needed:

• XML File - What you select when loading the decal
  • Color Map File - The texture for the decal
  • Normal Map File - Has normal information for the decal TODO: is this necessary or are there fallback files?

XML File

This file is what you load in the engine to make the decal show up. It links to a color texture and a normal texture that make up the decal.

<?xml version="2.0" ?>
<Type>generic</Type>
<DecalObject>
    <ColorMap>Data/Textures/Decals/Rocky/black_dust_c.tga</ColorMap>
    <NormalMap>Data/Textures/diffusebump.tga</NormalMap>
    <ShaderName>decal</ShaderName>
</DecalObject>

ColorMap
Path to the texture file.

NormalMap
Path to the Normal map image file.

ColorMap

Can be created with any image manipulation program. The following file formats are supported:

• *.tga
• *.png

Normal Map Image File

Can be created with any image manipulation program. Must have the same dimensions as the texture file. TODO: is this True?