changing materials on TW assets (nooby Q)

11_HARLEY_11 · #1 04-17-2012, 09:18 PM

Guys what is the best way to replace materials with my own on a TW mesh without breaking the original? I'm doing this currently; After putting the mesh in my scene I then go to its properties F4 and in rendering add how ever many material slots I need? This seems to work but if I go to the original TW material, right click to 'select level actors using this material' it selects the mesh in my scene as if it's still referencing the original materials as well as my own.

Just want to make sure I'm not doubling up on materials somehow.

[TW]Swag · #2 04-18-2012, 06:53 AM

That's natural. Just because you override the material doesn't mean the engine doesn't have a reference to it's original material. There's nothing to be done on that outside of duplicating the mesh from the package into another of your own. That, obviously, would remove the backlink since it's a brand new asset.

A lightweight solution would be to derive a MIC (Material Instance Constant) from the material we used and override the values for diffuse, normal, etc we exposed to that which you want. MICs are very lightweight in regards to memory only having an overhead of the textures you choose. Sometimes we have controls to handle color changes of the diffuse which may very well do just fine in some instances.

This is a good place for materials:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Mater...turesHome.html

This is specifically the MIC portion:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/InstancedMaterials.html

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Mater...eConstant.html

While that gives you a fair amount of information as to how they work, it's meant only for you to understand what you may find and how you would go about making one.

11_HARLEY_11 · #3 04-18-2012, 07:11 AM

Thanks again Swag for the info and links.

The first thing I tried was to make an instance of your materials but the option was greyed out. Is there a way to override this?

edit: sorry should have read the link you sent before asking

Drecks · #4 04-18-2012, 07:18 AM

I did change quite a lot of the stock meshes material. The last I changed is the material used for these piles of grey factory sheets. They where to clean and bright and I added a rusty texture to them. Just made a own material and add the original TWI texture then blended that one with an own rusty texture. And saved this in an own package.

Then added the material to the TWI static mesh. Works fine and looks good. As my idea was that as soon this metal is stored outside for a while rust will appear.

11_HARLEY_11 · #5 04-18-2012, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drecks

I did change quite a lot of the stock meshes material. The last I changed is the material used for these piles of grey factory sheets. They where to clean and bright and I added a rusty texture to them. Just made a own material and add the original TWI texture then blended that one with an own rusty texture. And saved this in an own package.

Then added the material to the TWI static mesh. Works fine and looks good. As my idea was that as soon this metal is stored outside for a while rust will appear.

Drecks when you added your custom material to the TW Static mesh did you do it by adding the material to a new slot in the rendering/material section?
As Swag mentioned it will still reference the original material...not sure if it uses more memory though. Seems like it would eh?

Le0 · #6 04-18-2012, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 11_HARLEY_11

Thanks again Swag for the info and links.

The first thing I tried was to make an instance of your materials but the option was greyed out. Is there a way to override this?

You have to first create the material instance in your package then open it and add the parent manually.

Drecks · #7 04-18-2012, 11:39 AM

I did it like you. Just added an own material to that empty slot.
Works ok for. I see no reason to duplicate the mesh into an own package.
If this isn't the correct way I would like to hear. I did the same with the
destroyed floor part in previous released versions.
The version I work on now have these rusty sheets.

11_HARLEY_11 · #8 04-18-2012, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drecks

If this isn't the correct way I would like to hear.

Me too.
As long as it's not using any more memory it must be ok. It's got to be better than duplicating the mesh I guess..

Thanks Leo, I should have read Swags link before asking.