Needed Help, Assistance, Advice

[tobrago]

Advice on how to convert dds file in tga, I use adobe photoshop cs6.
Which is the best option 16 bits/pixel 24 bits/pixel 32 bits/pixel, with compression (compress (RLE))?
Please note that the last option (32 bits/pixel) shows the alpha channel.

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Greetings and cheers.

[CrazyGijs]

Since I'm no were near a expert with textures and modding in general (compared with 50k and Smarty ) I can't tell you the exact anwser, but I can tell you what I always do.

I always use the stock values with 32 bits/pixel, because I mostly use the alpha channel....

[tobrago]

@ CrazyGijs

Thanks for the quick answer. And I think that's the better option (32 bits/pixel).
Do you use the compression (compress (RLE))?

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Greetings and cheers.

[Smarty]

If your image is:

• RGBA → 32bpp
• RGB → 24bpp

Basically, it's 8 bits per channel, per pixel.

For example, a normal map (tsnmap) would be saved as 24bpp; a dif.spec base map would be saved as 32bpp; a dif base map would be saved as 24bpp; etc, etc...

RLE (Run Length Encoding) compression shouldn't have any effect on SCSBT, Conversion Tools, or the end result. It can make your tga file size smaller if many horizontally-adjacent pixels are the same colour. For photo-like images where adjacent pixels are usually different from each other, it will have negligible effect. I leave it off, but I have a lot of hard disk space (for now).

[tobrago]

@ Smarty

Thanks for the quick answer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to solve these two problems?

1. How to reduce radiant around the sign?

Image problem:

[ external image ]


2. And how to highlight the signs in the dark (Time in the game 21 hours in the evening)?

[ external image ]

[ external image ]

Mat file:

Code: Select all

material : "eut2.dif.spec.add.env.over.fx" {
	texture[0] : "/vehicle/truck/upgrade/signs/signs1.tobj"
	texture_name[0] : "texture_base"
	texture[1] : "/material/environment/vehicle_reflection.tobj"
	texture_name[1] : "texture_reflection"
	add_ambient : 0
	diffuse : { 1 , 1 , 1 }
	env_factor : { 0.214041 , 0.214041 , 0.214041 }
	fresnel : { 0.2 , 0.9 }
	reflection : 60
	shininess : 60
	specular : { 0 , 0 , 0 }
}

Thanks for the advice and help.

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Greetings and cheers.

[Smarty]

Before we get to your problem, let me point out that the 'reflection' parameter doesn't do what I'm assuming you think it does. It's for adding an env-map pass when a surface is wet (usually roads and concrete pads). A value of 60 is just going to make your signs very bright and reflective when it's raining.

Right, now onto your shading questions:

Too bright during the day: Try reducing the diffuse parameter slightly — (0.9,0.9,0.9) vs (1,1,1) — or try to avoid using pure white in your base texture.

Too dark during sunset: Maybe try using a weak, broad specular (shininess ~30-50, specular ~0.2,0.2,0.2) so that the difference in lighting between the truck and the sign isn't as jarring. The plastic surface at the front of the truck is using shininess: 50 and specular: (0.484,0.484,0.484) for comparison.

When in doubt, study similar objects whose lighting appears correct and compare your material, vertex colour, and texture values.

[tobrago]

@ Smarty

Thanks for the explanation, but unfortunately I was not able to solve the problem.

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Greetings and cheers.

[tobrago]

1. Can someone explain this item?

[ external image ]

I tried to setup this as he explained Smarty, but I'm not satisfied with the results.

2. The tab for the texture, in option influence. Can someone explain this item?

[ external image ]

These parameters when changing, the game does not change. Changes are happening in Blender.

3. Can someone explain to me how to copy icons in my mod (material\ui\accessory)?
I copied the icons in my mod (ico.dds, ico.mat & ico.tobj), not successfully converted. What is the problem?

Thanks for the advice and help.

Google translator.
Greetings and cheers.

[Smarty]

1. Here's a quick primer on Blinn-Phong shading. In very general terms: diffuse lighting is smooth and broad, and not affected by the camera position; specular lighting is intense and focused, and affected by the camera position; and ambient lighting is uniform and flat. When these components are combined, we can represent a broad range of materials. So let's look at the parameters in the Material attributes panel:

Diffuse: Sets the intensity/colour of the diffuse lighting component.

Specular: Sets the intensity/colour of the specular lighting component.

Shininess: Inversely affects the spread/width of the specular highlight – High values make a very tight specular highlight (~250 for clearcoat paint and light lenses, ~1000 for hard plastics), while low values make a very broad highlight (~15 for dry rubber, concrete, etc). Low shininess values generally look better with lower specular intensity, but some materials are exceptional.

Add Ambient: Adds/subtracts from the ambient lighting component. Positive values are useful for materials like unpolished concrete which don't conform to the usual diffuse lighting profile. Negative values are useful for materials with high env factor values (above 1.0,1.0,1.0) which can make the material "blow out" (overexpose) in bright lighting conditions (chrome wheels for example).

Reflection: Used for ground materials which become reflective during rain (asphalt, concrete, etc). The value sets the intensity of the environment pass drawn over the material.

Env Factor: Sets the intensity/colour of the environmental reflection (cube map) pass.

Fresnel: The two parameters are used to adjust the strength of the environmental reflection based on the angle of the camera/light to the surface. Some materials, like somewhat polished concrete/tile are very reflective at oblique angles yet not at all when viewed directly. I don't 100% know what each parameter does specifically, but: when the first parameter is higher, the intensity of the reflection on surfaces facing the camera is higher; and, when the second parameter is higher, the intensity of the reflection on surfaces oblique to the camera is higher. If you have fresnel: (1.0, 1.0), that is equivalent visually to .add.env.nofresnel, but without the performance benefit (useful if you have looks with different fresnel though).


2. Don't use this panel. Just don't. It's a trap! Only the settings on the Material Attributes panel (1) are exported. If you change the appearance in Blender using other panels, what you see is no longer what you get.


3. The tobj's need to be in plain-text format. Here's an example of a valid icon material and tobj:

blah.mat:

Code: Select all

material : "ui"
{
	texture : "blah.tobj"
	texture_name : "texture"
}

blah.tobj:

Code: Select all

map	2d	blah.tga
addr	clamp_to_edge	clamp_to_edge
usage ui

It's equivalent to:

Code: Select all

map	2d	blah.tga
addr	clamp_to_edge	clamp_to_edge
nomips
nocompress
color_space linear

I recommend using a .tga texture instead of a .dds, because it's unlikely you'll have saved a .dds with the correct settings to correspond to the .tobj.

[tobrago]

@ Smarty

Thank you very much for your prompt response and detailed explanation.
I will try to change values in material attributes.

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Greetings and cheers.

Edit: I used this code.

Code: Select all

map 2d
	ico_harmful2_9.tga
addr
	clamp_to_edge
	clamp_to_edge
nomips
nocompress
color_space linear

I think I chose the right, working the first and the second code.

Google translator.
Greetings and cheers.