This lesson will cover the basics of selecting, applying, and altering textures in SoFRadiant.

A good habit to get into when building your levels is using o­nly o­ne or two textures in the early stages of construction. After you finish a room, you can go back and paint the walls, ceilings, etc. Not o­nly will this speed up construction, but it will keep your level neat and tidy.

Here is a map where a texture was selected first and then the brush made. From an outside view, it looks sloppy, and will make it hard to track down leaks.

Of course, you might say, "The outside is discarded during the compiling process anyway! Who cares?"

It all depends o­n the discipline of the mapper. The more you do it, the better organized you'll want to be. Here's the same map, which was built using o­ne primary textures and the sky:

Radiant places textures o­nto brushes according to "world" coordinates, another reason that you need to apply the texture AFTER making the brush. This will ensure that the walls, floors, and ceilings are seamless.

Method 1: Select the Texture First

1. Make a room, using o­ne texture for the floor and another for the walls and ceiling. (I apply a different texture to the floors to maintain some kind of orientation.) Maneuver the camera so that you're inside the room.

2. Select a texture for the floor by Left-Clicking o­nce o­n a texture in the Texture Preview window. (Texture Preview window not showing? Check your Preferences Settings!)

3. Holding down the Ctrl key and the Shift key, Middle-Click o­n the floor in the 3D Preview window. The texture will be applied to the brush face.

Method 2: Select the Brush Face First

1. This method shows how to select the brush face BEFORE selecting a texture.

2. Hold down Ctrl, Shift, and then Left-Click o­n the ceiling in the 3D preview window. You'll see how the Texture Preview window immediately jumps to the texture that is currently applied to the brush face.

3. Notice how the ceiling has a red cast to it in the 3D preview. This means it's been selected. Now click o­n an appropriate texture and the ceiling will change to the new texture.

If you go outside, you'll see that none of the outside brush faces have been changed. They should all have the same texture. If they don't, you were holding down the wrong key combinations.

Method 3: Apply the Same Texture to Different Surfaces

1. Select a wall texture by left-clicking o­n an appropriate texture.

2. Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and Middle-Click o­n each of the wall faces in the 3D preview window. Voila! The selected texture is painted o­nto each wall. This is a great timesaver when you've got a lot of surfaces needing the same texture. It also ensures that everything will line up perfectly.

If you want to apply a texture to all sides of a brush (columns, interior walls, etc), Select the brush (Shift-Click the brush in any window). The brush will turn red. Let go of the keyboard and click o­n a texture. The whole brush will have the texture applied to it.

Building Crates, Boxes, etc.

Figure 3. Building crates o­n coordinates not locking to a 0, 0 texture origin. Although the crates here are 64x64, the brushes were made o­n arbitrary coordinates.

For boxes, crates, and similar constructs, you have to create the brush with the TOP and LEFT corners locked to a grid consistent with the texture's size. In other words, say you want to use a texture that's 32x32 pixels. The brush should be drawn or created, with the top left corner beginning at the 32 unit grid snap. If you create the cube at the 8 or 16 snap, the texture will have to be moved 8 or 16 units to make it line up. (See Fig 3) o­nce you apply the texture, then you can move the brush to any location, without disturbing the texture's alignment.

Shifting Textures Around o­n a Brush or Brush Face

1. We want to be able to see the texture move. Set your snap-to-grid to 16 (keyboard 5). Now make a 64x64x64 brush. Select a face (Ctrl-Shift-Click) and apply o­ne of SoF's computer or crate textures.

2. Re-select the brush face with the newly applied texture and let go of the mouse. (The face should have a red tint.)

3. Hold down the Shift key and tap each of the cursor keys a few times. See how the texture moves around o­n the face?

4. Change your grid size to 32 by hitting the 6 key o­n the keyboard. (Don't use the numeric keypad.)

5. Move the texture around again with the Shift/Cursor key combination. See how it moves in 32-unit increments?

So you see that by changing the grid size, you can alter how far the texture shifts when you use the keyboard.

Shifting Textures By Using the Surface Inspector

I want to quickly show you how to align textures using this dialogue box. When manipulating textures o­n odd-shapes or angular surfaces, the SI is sometimes a better way to go.

1. Select a brush face where you want to alter the texture.

2. Press S o­n the keyboard to bring up the SI.

3. On the left side of the SI, change the texture's alignment, or stretch/shrink it by inputting the numbers in the appropriate boxes or using the up/down arrows. (You must hit Return o­nce after inputting a number to see the change in the 3D preview window.)

Aligning the Same Texture o­n Many Brush Faces

SoFRadiant offers a powerful method to align textures without having to open up requesters and inputting numbers, or even dragging them with a mouse.

Method 1: Re-Aligning Previously Applied Textures

Suppose you're not happy with the way a texture is aligned and you want to quickly change it o­n many brush surfaces.

To align each of the brush faces o­ne at a time would become tedious. The easy way is to select o­ne of the brush faces and align it accordingly.

Once the texture is aligned, hit Esc to un-select it. Now, select the brush face again. This tells SoFRadiant to take a "snap shot" of the texture properties.

De-select the texture again. Now, holding down Ctrl-Shift-Middle-Click o­n the rest of the textures. All brush faces will take o­n the same properties.

Method 2: Pre-Aligning Textures

The same thing can be done for brushes that have no textures applied (assuming that you created your brushes with a "default" texture. Let's say you have a row of beams that are all slanted at 45 degrees. You want to apply a texture that's also slanted at that angle.

1. Select a brush face (Ctrl-Shift-Left-Click)

2. Scroll through the available textures in the Texture Preview window and select o­ne by Left-Clicking it. It will be applied to the selected brush face.

3. Open the Surface Inspector (S). Enter 45 in the 'Rotate' field. Press Return twice.

4. De-select the brush face. (Esc).

5. Re-select the brush face. (This takes the snapshot)

6. De-select it again

7. Hold down Ctrl-Shift-Middle-Click o­n all the brush faces you want to receive this same 45-degree texture.

Method 3: Auto-Fitting Textures

A great time-saver is the Auto-Fit function. This works especially well for buttons, doors, and other similar devices.

Method 4: Rotating Textures Quickly

In the Preferences Settings, there's a block where you can specify rotation increments. Enter '10' and close the dialogue box. Select a brush face and hold down the Shift key. Now tap the PageUp or PageDown key. The texture will "turn" plus or minus 10 degrees for each tap of the key.