Half-Life 2 Skins

[BetaMaster]

Hi, I seem to remember reading somewhere a while ago in an interview with Valve that the skins on every object were painted directly onto the model, rather than made as a texture and stretched on. As I have absolutely no experience in modelling, and even more so in skinning, is this the way it's done with every game? Or is it just a new trend for games like FarCry, Doom3 and Half-Life 2? Or is it just something very few games do, and Half-Life 2 is one of them?

Please clear this up!
-Brad

 

[ship]

I don't know much about this, either, but here's a good quote from the IGN Preview:

The textures now all come with physical qualities so a simple box might become a metal footlocker or a wooden crate depending on which textures are used on it.

The graphic textures that the artist lays on the object comes with pre-loaded physical properties. Not only does this affect the sound an object makes when it collides with another; it also works for things like sparks as metal barrels slide across a concrete floor. To be clear, these properties don't determine the damage modeling of an object -- the fragility of a glass object still has to be scripted, for instance -- but it makes designing a consistent and believable world much easier.

 

[BetaMaster]

Oh, cool. I haven't read that before. Thanks, Ship!

 

[Xailia]

It's just the materials system...

You now apply materials to surfaces instead of textures. Materials (VMT files) can refer to a number of textures (bump maps, base textures, environment maps, etc) which start out as TGA files and are converted to textures (VTF files) via a custom tool before you can use them in the game. Textures and materials are not compiled into WAD files anymore. They are stored as individual files in a materials folder. Optionally, they can be stored in a file system inside a ZIP file. You can embed these ZIP files directly into BSPS if you want.

It appeared on the VERC shortly after E3 2003.

 

[Hyperion2010]

models are still skinned, a texture is still a texture, its just got added info

 

[BetaMaster]

So how are characters' skins made, and put onto the models in the game?

EDIT
----
@Hyperion
Skinned as in with an alternate program, and then are stretched onto the model later? Or do they "paint" the skin onto the model, which is then turned into a texture? Sorry if I sound really stupid, but I've never actually looked into this.

 

[M1RAG3]

The Character textures are created through a process called UVW mapping, which makes a 2d image of a 3d model, then allowing the artist to create/paint the texture (can be in realtime), also you can now directly paint onto a model and the texture will conform to the model, getting rid of the dreaded "stretches/rips/seams".

 

[BetaMaster]

Ok, that answers my question. I'm glad we won't be seeig those stretches quite as much! I don't quite understand how the UVW mapping works, though. Does it just make a 2d image from different angles, or does it like flatten/distort the model to be completely flat and all sides visible?

 

[Brian Damage]

It unrolls the mesh, so that all the little triangles are on one flat surface. Kind of like the way they sometimes display a map of the Earth as three joined quasi-circular splotches.