Just found out about decals, and have a usage question.
Ok, so when playing a game, my pet hate is repetition. (hrm, well that and collision errors with feet and foliage going through meshes.)
Every new AAA game I get, I specifically go up to a building, patch of grass or rock wall etc, and look for a few seconds to see if the repeating patterns are obvious.
If I can look round for a good few seconds and not notice the tiling, or that obvious crack on the wall, that’s over there, and over there, oh and over there.
That broken window is the same as that one, and that one and hrm, all of them.
So, if the game passes that test I know I’ll be able to immerse myself into it without any problems, and even if I end up crouching by a wall shaking with fear, trying to load all my weapons while that “thing” is coming for me, I will not be disappointed by the texture on the walls.
Anyway all that aside, my question is, If you do have repeating patterns / obvious feature, that will be noticeable when tiling, can you just cover it up with a decal?
To me it seems a nice simple way of going through the level, and going, hrm, yep decal over there, and one over there, and all will look good. You could even have the decals be something that really blends well with the environment, like a different crack, or a second broken brick.