Grass as Static - alpha problems and want to animate

[Sachiel]

Hi,

I was importing one of the grass meshes to Blender and simply exported it to have grass as static which worked actually. The problem is now that the edges of the meshes that have the texture on them is still slightly visible despite having alpha on.
Another thing I'd like to know is if it would be possible to make the grass not only animated but to link the animation to how strongly the wind blows.
Pics to show the first mentioned problem will follow.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Sachiel
I was importing one of the grass meshes to Blender and simply exported it to have grass as static which worked actually. The problem is now that the edges of the meshes that have the texture on them is still slightly visible despite having alpha on.

As I understand it, you need to make sure the alpha channel cuts into the image slightly rather than perfectly following the outline, otherwise the unused space in the texture will be shown around the edge of the used section.

Another thing I'd like to know is if it would be possible to make the grass not only animated but to link the animation to how strongly the wind blows.

My first instinct was to say no to this question, but actually, I do believe this is possible. It can be achieved in the same way as the various shop signs in the game work.

The basic setup will be this:

- a rigid body attached to the scene root
- a rigid body for each part of the mesh you want to sway
- these rigid bodies will be linked via a ragdoll constraint

This setup should allow for the grass meshes to sway in the wind (as long as you have the correct settings in the .nif). Any collision boxes you add will want to be of the non-collidable type.

If you'd like some help with the setup of this let me know - it all makes sense in my head, but I've never been very good at explaining things.

[Sachiel]

Hi,

I managed to get rid of the edges I mentioned, thanks to your help.
Here are two pics:

This looks okayish. When not moving.


This looks rather crappy. I realized that it's harder than I thought to place the stuff by hand and make it look good. Tried Dupliverts on the rock mesh to make ready-to-place-grassy-rocks but to no avail. Well, time will tell if it'll be working one day.

As for the animation, I understood the theory but I've no clue about how to pull it off actually.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Sachiel
As for the animation, I understood the theory but I've no clue about how to pull it off actually.

If you send me a link to the files I'll get the setup done.

One thing to consider might be billboarding the grass mesh.

[Sachiel]

Here's the .nif.
I wonder if billboarding it would be ok and if the visual difference to vanilla grass will be too noticeable.

Another question btw before I open another thread: I did these caves. When I put some old caves into the CS I can see whats inside. That's how it should be because the normals are pointing inside. Like this.

When I put a recently created mesh into the CS I actually have to move the camera inside it to be able to see where I place stuff. Does anyone know why that is the case? The normals are also pointing inwards.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Sachiel
Here's the .nif. http://rapidshare.com/files/192133089/grass.nif.html

I've attached the modified .nif with collision and constraints. I can't actually test at the moment, and my knowledge of constraints has got a little rusty, so it's quite possible it will crash the CS.

The movement will not be ideal as you've got the grass set up as one big triStrip - individual ones would work better for what we want. Still, if all's well with the .nif, it should provide a decent demonstration of what's possible.

Another question btw before I open another thread: I did these caves. When I put some old caves into the CS I can see whats inside. That's how it should be because the normals are pointing inside. Like this http://d.imagehost.org/0193/cc2.jpg
When I put a recently created mesh into the CS I actually have to move the camera inside it to be able to see where I place stuff. Does anyone know why that is the case? The normals are also pointing inwards.

Check that you've haven't got a stencil property attached to the mesh.

[Sachiel]

Thanks a lot. I'll check the thing out. About the cave, I have a stencil property attached. But now that you mentioned it, I found out that I had to put the draw mode to "DRAW_CCW". Thanks.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Damn, man! That looks fine. I love heather. Nice work! :goodjob: