Wear and Tear

Make any world look lived-in. Wear and Tear is the weathering volume of the Swatchbook material library: 28 overlays for the wear and life that sits on top of a surface. Lay rust streaks over a steel door, let puddles gather in the low spots of a car park, dust the tops of old crates, spray a graffiti piece across a wall, and turn the amount up or down while the world runs, for every player at once.

What is in it

• Dirt and grime: a dirt film splashed up from the ground, dust that settles only on tops, grime that gathers in crevices and corners, soot plumes, oil stains with a rainbow sheen.
• Water: rain-wet surfaces that turn darker and glossy, puddles in the flat low spots with rain rings, tide marks, damp creeping up a wall.
• Corrosion and growth: rust streaks running down from edges and bolts, blistered rust bloom, creeping moss, lichen rosettes.
• Damage: hairline and spider cracks, paint chipped along the edges, scratches and deep gouges.
• Cover: snow that lies only on what faces up, feathery frost, sand or ash drifts.
• Marks and signs: a graffiti tag and a full piece, a torn poster and a layer of flyers, paint splats and drips, boot, bare and paw prints, tyre tracks in mud and skid marks.
• Toon: cartoon dirt, a snow cap, rust and a splat that sit right on toon materials.

How it works

Every overlay is either layered over whatever a surface already wears, from any collection (metal, brick, wood, ground, fabric, plastic, toon), gathering where the real thing gathers (by height, facing up, in crevices, along edges, down from the top), or stuck on like a decal you size in metres and turn. Everything is lit by the scene, from noon to moonlight, and every player in the world sees the same weather.

Walk around

The world opens in a gallery of all 28 overlays, each beside its reference picture, on a neutral base and on a second real material, with lighting looks from bright daylight to moonlight on the toolbar. In the gap of the ring stands a weathered street corner: a brick wall, a pavement, a road and a van, worn together into one place. In front of it lie five ground beds on Terra Firma's ground surfaces: mud tyre tracks on grass, boot prints in sand, boot and paw prints in snow, puddles on gravel and moss creeping over a forest floor.

Use it in your world

Install the weatheringMaterials package from ZeroMind. It brings the Swatchbook library core with it and nothing else, and every overlay shows up in the library's list, picker and gallery. The package README starts with a short example that weathers a wall in a brand-new world: a brushed-metal wall, rust streaks with an amount you change live, and a graffiti tag.