How to generate seamless hexagonal textures

Question

I'm doing a tactical game (X-Com / Fallout style) for fun. I've decided to use a hexagonal map, but I'm having a graphic problem.

My current map display is HUD-like, with only the border of the map cells displayed, without any texture. It's simple and allows for display of different types of information by varying the color of the border. For example, the "danger view mode" displays the borders with a color going from green (no damage possible) to red (prob of damage > 90%).

Now, it's a bit hard to differentiate the kind of tile the player is on. I could put a plain color (green is grass, pale blue is water...), but this is going to limit the possibilities. Thus, I would like to display a texture on my tiles. Since the maps are generated, I can not use a picture for the whole map with the HUD over.

So, my question is: does anyone know how can I generate the seamless hexagonal textures (algo or plugin)?

Answer 1

Can't you just do a planar projection of a regular tiling texture onto your tiles and just have hard edges where your tile types switch? So on your hexes that are "grass" just map their UVs in "map space" to a repeating grass texture.

Answer 2

Take an ordinary texture and chop it up to make your hexagonal tiles.

To clarify: Take a seamless texture that's square. Use appropriate bits of it to make your hexagons. If you select your pieces appropriately you get a seamless texture on your hexagons. Note that each hexagon gets a different piece of the underlying texture up until the point the pattern repeats.