Decals on Vehicles and Characters?

[PuckerFactor]

I've searched all the forums looking for a definitive answer to this. The UDN "Using Decals" (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingDecals.html#%22Dynamic%22%20decals) has this to say about decals

Static decals
"Static" decals are decals that are placed in the level in UnrealEd?. The runtime cost of a static decal is roughly the same as a static mesh, except that decals have far fewer polys and do not collide, block, or cast shadows.

Dynamic decals
"Dynamic" decals are decals spawned during gameplay -- as a weapon hit effect, for example. Decals spawned in game have a one-time creation cost, after which the per-frame cost is the same as a static decal (just the draw call).

It doesn't say if you can use them on Vehicles. Can I apply a decal to the sides of a vehicle to show unit number and other assorted overlays?

Can the decal just be a texture or does it need to be associated with its own mesh?

[micahpharoh]

decals are basically textures (materials), so they don't need a mesh. In all honesty, I believe that it'd be possible to add a decal to a vehicle, but I don't know why you wouldn't just make it part of the vehicle's material if you're just going to add "overlays."

[PuckerFactor]

decals are basically textures (materials), so they don't need a mesh. In all honesty, I believe that it'd be possible to add a decal to a vehicle, but I don't know why you wouldn't just make it part of the vehicle's material if you're just going to add "overlays."

In a lot of cases the left and right sides of a vehicle can be unwrapped and flipped on top of each other saving texture space. Adding a decal with numbers and letters won't show reversed on the effected flipped sided unwrap....unless there is a better way to do this in the material editor?

[micahpharoh]

I see what you mean. Personally, I'd just go with a fully unwrapped model, without any UV overlap, then do all your stuff in the material editor. I guess that's just my preference, though.