Patch-Mesh 101
90 Degree Curved Hall
Now let's start adding meshes to a test map.
I'm thinking a curved tunnel between two simple box
rooms.
Start out by making two rooms and a hallway out of the common/caulk texture. Texture the visible faces of the rooms with the textures of your choice but leave the hallway
textured with caulk.
There should always be brush's behind meshes with the
common/caulk texture applied to them.
The hall should be a right angle.
Something like this:
Next build two brushes 1/2 the width of the hall opening. Use whatever texture you like. I used
base_wall/redpad because it's easy to line up.
They should look like this:
 
You will have to rotate the brushes so that they are oriented vertically (remember what I said about patch meshes being created
in the XY top view). Alternatively, you can create them in the XY top view and, once you've made the bevels, you can rotate them into position. (Use the 
button or the 
button.)
Select one of them and turn it into a
bevel. (Go to Curve menu then Bevel.)
This is a good time to invert the mesh (ctrl-I).
Don't worry about lining up the texture just yet.
When you've finished, your bevels should look like this:
 
Yes I know I have already fixed the texture but it's a
waste of time at this point. You will notice that I have
built some other brushes below these bevels. This is going
to be a pulsing shader texture trim mesh. We will get to
that on the next page
Next select one of the bevels we are going to add two
more rows of vertex control points to it.
To do this go to Curve menu then Insert then Add two
rows.
Now while the bevel is still selected, hit the V key and then hit ctrl-G. This snaps the new points to the grid.
Then turn off vertex editing mode by hitting the V key again. Now
repeat this for the other bevel.
You could use the curve menu then matrix then
re-disperse rows (ctrl+E) but sometimes the vertex
points are still off the grid.
Also I always leave snap to grid on, to check go
to grid menu then leave snap to grid checked.
Let's move on. Select one on the bevels then hit the V key
to bring up vertex editing. Use ctrl+tab to switch to XY top view.
Should look like this.
Now we are going to shape this bevel so that it'll go around the corner.
Left click and hold on the bottom right vertex point.
The color of the vertex point should turn to blue. Drag the selected point to the far corner.
(White hands point the way)
Like this.
Now grab the vertex point that was directly above this one
before you moved it, and drag it to the middle of the
hall opposite the one to where you moved the first vertex.
Next drag the bottom vertex to the inside corner.
(White hands point the way)
Now
move the
vertex
that was above this to the inside
middle corner.( Black hands point the way)
This screenshot should help.
Of the next set of points, the bottom one goes to the inside
corner again and the top one goes to the right middle
corner.
Another pic.
On
the next set of vertex points, move the bottom one to the
inside corner and the top one right above it in the
middle.
Should look like this:
Now hit the shift-S key, click on the Natural button and
then on Apply.
This bevel is done for now and should look like this
Now let's do the same to the other bevel.
And all the vertex points should look like this when you
are done.
Notice the texture in the 3d view after you hit the
natural button.
It still needs alignment. Don't worry - it's easy to fix.
Hit the S key then hit rotate four times and it should
be aligned up. Nope, this doesn't work when you bend a
bevel around a 90 degree corner. What to do? I know - change the texture to a plain one. This is what I did. I picked
base_wall/rusted. That's better. If you know how
to get a texture with a pattern in it to align up on
this type of bevel please email
me and explain how so I can add it to this tutorial.
Should look like this now.
Ok so the trim on the bottom isn't done yet but it's in
the pic, we will get to that part in the next page.
Now let's add caps to the ends of the bevels.
Select one of them, then hit shift-c then select the Inverted
bevel.
This will cap both ends for ya now you can use the tab
key to cycle the group of meshes to get to the end you
want to work with.
Or you can do what I do and ungroup the meshes first by
right clicking in the 2d window on the selected group,
then go to Ungroup entity.
Then hit the Esc key to unselect all, then left click on
one of the caps. Now pick a texture. I
used basic cement. Hit control-N to naturalize the
texture (yep a new short cut) and then hit ctrl-shift-N
to cycle the cap texture. Repeat the ctrl-shift-N as many
times as needed.
Now that one side is done, go do the other side. Or
better yet cap the other bevel ungroup it and texture
that one. Then go to the other end of the hall way and
do the other two.
Well, you're
done with the bevels for this hall.
Let's move on to the trim in the next page.
Patch Mesh page 3
The following short cut keys will come in handy while working
with meshes:
ctrl-G
Snap to grid (I use this one a lot)
ctrl-
I
Invert texture
shift-control-N Cycles cap textures patch
V
key
Turns on vertices so you can drag them.
control-N
Naturalize patch texture
Control-P
Toggle show patches
shift-C
Cap selected curve
shift-S
Patch Inspector (I use this one a lot)
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