What is now called Anvil was originally called the Wall Worm Displacement Tool. Since displacements are now just one aspect of the toolset, it has been re-named Anvil. This page details the displacement aspect.

Please note that the UI in the videos may not reflect the current UI and there are a few comments that are no longer valid. For example, some videos mention that you cannot copy displacements--which is no longer true.

Key Features

• Build terrain inside 3ds Max
• Use standard 3ds Max design tools and modifiers to sculpt terrain
• Sew displacements that do not line up
• Paint blend texture alpha inside Max

Using WW Displacements

Before you use WW Displacements, please make sure to read this entire page. Please make sure to share feedback when you use the tool to help hasten development and enhance the tool.

General Workflow

The general workflow of Wall Worm Displacements is this:

1. Add displacement objects into the scene with the UI
2. Move the displacement object to desired location (Make sure to have grid snapping turned on)
3. Click Edit Mode to start sculpting the displacements.
4. Alternatively go to Texture Mode to paint the Alpha for blending the displacement materials.
5. Repeat previous two steps interchangeably as you fine-tune the terrain
6. Leave Edit Mode when done sculpting

Hints, Tips and Limitations

This section includes important information regarding the usage of the tool.

Do not change the Displacement Topology

You should not do anything that changes the topology of the displacement. If you are unfamiliar with 3ds Max then that statement may seem fairly odd since the displacement is for making terrains... and you are changing the shape and "topology" as defined by common terminology. However, in 3ds Max, topology is defined as the positions, parameters, etc of specific faces and vertices which are referred to by specific numbers... topological changes will change the ordering/numbering of these vertices and faces.

• While the geometry of the displacement can be modified via modifiers and the poly sculpting, avoid actions such as Attach, Detach, etc.
• Do not add/delete any vertices or faces to the displacements.
• Do not use Turbosmooth, MeshSmooth, MultiRes, Optimize, etc.

The actual in-game texture is derived from the name of the material

The actual texture that will appear in Hammer and in-game is derived from the name of the material applied to the displacement. Changing the bitmaps that appear in the Max viewport do not change the textures used in-game unless you happen to change the name of the material (in the material editor).

• The current default texture is named nature/blendcliffgrass001a... which is why that texture appears Hammer after exporting.
• The path of the material you want to use must be used in the name--which is why the default material name is prefixed with "nature/".

Displacement Power cannot change after created

In Hammer, you can change the power of a displacement on the fly. In this tool, the power cannot be changed once set. This may or may not change in the future.

The Sew function only works as intended between displacements of the same power.

You can sew displacements that have different powers... but the results are not what are intended... leaving some vertices from the higher-power mesh unmoved.

• The sew function only works on the currently selected displacements.
• Sew will only work if the base geometry of a displacement are aligned at the edge vertices--which is not always easy to do once you've started sculpting (as the base geometry is actually hidden and inaccessible unless you get it via the Layer Manager).

Exporting a VMF overwrites VMFs if one already exists

When exporting your VMF, remember that the exporter will delete all contents of the target file before writing to the file. It does not append to a current VMF! If you want to merge this VMF with an existing file, you will have to turn one of the two files (this VMF or the other) into a prefab and bring it in that way.

The WW Displacement UI

This section outlines the purpose of each item in the WW Displacement Tool UI.

Type

This menu will tell the tool what kind of displacement you are making. The default is Ground. I may add more preset displacements in the future.

• Ground is good for ground. (In beta versions, it was called "Planar")
• Hill is good for mountains, hills, cliffs and terrain that need to be sculpted in three dimensions above the ground. (In beta versions, this was called "No Bottom".)
• Open Hill has three displacements... a top and two sides opposite of each other.
• Ring has four displacements that go around all sides of a cube.
• Corner has two displacements that meet each other like the outside corner of a building.
• Bulge has three displacements that are like the Open Hill rotated 90 degrees or the Ring with one displacement removed.
• Cube is added just as an option, but it is probably unnecessary to use six-sided displacements. (This was called "Cubic" in the beta versions.)

Power

Power controls the resolution of the mesh. The default is 4, which creates displacements with the most detail.

Length, Width and Height

These settings control the dimensions of the displacement. For conveneience, you should only make displacements that are of the listed dimensions (and this UI only gives you those options anyway).

Rows

This will create multiple rows of displacements.

• The number of displacements created is Rows X Columns.

Columns

This will create multiple columns of displacements.

• The number of displacements created is Rows X Columns.

Default Material

Click here to browse for the default material to apply to new displacements. If you do not choose one, the tool will automatically add a material that maps to the Source Material "nature/blendcliffgrass001a" .

• At the moment, the default material is not saved between sessions.

Create Displacement

Click this button to add the displacement objects to the scene. The power, size, rows and columns will control the output of these displacements.

Edit Mode

This button will allow you to edit the shape of your displacements. It will hide your actual displacements and create a temporary sculpting object that you can sculpt with the normal Poly sculpting tools like Push/Pull, Relax, Noise, etc. It will also activate the Texture Mode button.

• Checking the Edit Mode button lets you sculpt the displacements... but the action is not applied to your displacements until you leave edit mode by unchecking the Edit Mode button.
• If you don't like the changes to your displacements while in Edit Mode, simply delete the sculpting mesh and uncheck Edit Mode... you will exit Edit Mode and the original displacements will return.

Texture Mode

This button applies a Vertex Paint Modifier and sets it to paint on the Alpha channel of the vertices, allowing you to paint the blend alpha for the blend material..

• The viewport will only display textures properly if you are using an appropriate Direct X shader. There is a shader in the default installation of 3ds maps/fx called "blend_dxsas.fx" that this tool uses by default. In case you don't have that file, it is included with WW Displacements.
• The texture on your displacement is derived from the name of the material applied to it when exported to VMF.

Sew

This function is similar to the Sew command in Hammer. It will align vertices between displacements that are aligned next to each other. It does not work on the sculpt mesh in Edit Mode.

• Sew only works on the currently selected displacements.
• Desired results currently only come from sewing displacements of the same Power.
• Sew only works with displacements that are aligned perfectly on the grid.