Forum: Bryce


Subject: External Editors ?

RimRunner opened this issue on Feb 01, 2001 ยท 10 posts


RimRunner posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 10:37 AM

Ok, yesterday I was directed to the Texture lab. Thanks!! Now.. the next question, since you can import/export textures. It does this in a .BRT format. Anyone know of an external editor/converter that will allow you to create textures in things like Photoshop etc. ? Thanks, - Rim

The doctor says I have way too much blood in my caffeine system.


Prizm Break posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 2:25 PM

You can use any format for textures, jpg, bmp, psd, just bring them in with the 4 armed golden boy. tehn select them in material lab.


RimRunner posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 2:56 PM

Will give that a try. How about exporting the ones in Bryce already ?

The doctor says I have way too much blood in my caffeine system.


jade_nyc posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 9:48 PM

Can you turn external jpg, bmp, etc. into a Bryce texture preset(BRT) - I've never been able to find a way to add them to the texture library? Jade


Prizm Break posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 9:59 PM

I think if you use it as a texture, then select the object it is on, then hit add, it will do it, but its been a while, not sure


jade_nyc posted Thu, 01 February 2001 at 10:12 PM

Just so there's no confusion - I want to add it to this library Jade

Flickerstreak posted Fri, 02 February 2001 at 4:34 PM

No. There is no way to take an image texture and make a procedural texture out of it. The two are fundamentally different. An image texture uses a fixed amount of data - represented by the pixels in the image - to provide the textural information. A procedural texture is theoretically infinite in the amount of data it can represent, since it is based on math functions and algorithms. Apples and oranges. So no, you cannot edit .brt files (procedural textures) in an external editor. No, you cannot bring a picture (jpg, gif, bmp, whatever) into the Texture Library. Yes, you can save image textures in "Picture Lists", although the utility of this is dubious. You can freely go from procedural to image textures using the P/T button in the Materials lab for each channel, but the two are completely different creatures. In fact, if you make a procedural texture for an object, then switch to "picture" (image) texture mode, Bryce will NOT attempt to convert the procedural texture to an image, although this is, in theory at least, possible. The reverse conversion is, in general, not possible. If you just want to get a limited picture of a procedural texture, here's what you can do: find a procedural texture you like, go into the Deep Texture Editor, and option/alt-click on the 'combined' swatch (I think.... it might be another key combination, I'm not sure). This will render that texture really large on the screen. Use a screen-capture utility to get an image of the texture, save it, edit in photoshop, or whatever. It is now, however, an IMAGE texture and cannot be made into a procedural texture again. It does not tile correctly. It might not even look right - certain effects such as slope, orientation, altitude, etc. will be non-existant. You'll have to 'wrap' it around objects - it doesn't live in 3D space the way a procedural texture does. It is a severely limited way of generating textures. KPT texture explorer is generallly a superior way of doing exactly this, since it has much more control over tiling, noise patterns, etc. But it's still fundamentally an image generator, and image textures are totally different from procedural textures.


Prizm Break posted Fri, 02 February 2001 at 5:15 PM

KPT....I have that and never figured out how to make anything work. Is it used while in Bryce? how do you access the use of it? There doesnt seem to be an exe file or anything.


jade_nyc posted Sat, 03 February 2001 at 12:08 AM

Thanks Flickerstreak - that's what I thought - you can only add procedurals to the Texture Library - just wanted to make sure though because every once in awhile I find out about these hidden features that I didn't know existed. Jade


RimRunner posted Sat, 03 February 2001 at 11:03 AM

I have noticed that if you create a terrain and then export it out (after applying a texture of course) as a Truespace .COB file.. I get the .Cob and.. I get 4 other files: ambiamt, ambicol, bumpamt, diffcol. All are .BMP Now .. with these files and TS, I can import it and sign the differnt image maps in their shaders.. and .. might as well be procedural. :) I was just looking for a way to do the inverse. Since I can create a much more detailed texture with paint vertice/face and 3d paint/bump functions in TS. So this will take me to another question. How about a good UV ripper ? And how about 'Deep Textures' ? Anyone own that ? I've seen the banner a few times around here. Looks promissing.. but.. I'm on a budgit (who isn't) and don't have loads of cash to sink into apps.

The doctor says I have way too much blood in my caffeine system.