"Guide" Combiners/TexPanners/Shaders Specular and Self Illum Masks

[J.D.*]

Ive been debating on making a guide for the mentioned materials. Mainly for putting a reflection on your texture or making part of a texture Illuminate and in some cases you may want to make the textures illumination "move" so to speak. These details can really bring a surface and your map to life. Engine may be limited but can look better than you may think. Using only a combiner or only a shader for reflection works but they won't react properly to light. Ex. being in total dark you can easily see a reflection on a surface. 2nd Ex. would be make an entire room full of combiners to create a reflection. Shine your flashlight in the map, you can easily see it does not work the way it should.

Simply give me an e-cookie (or a simple yerp) on this thread if your interested in this, if enough people are interested Ill make the guide. (This guide will show you how to use the material editor ALONG with making/creating a specular and self illumination mask. .Psds will be included along with gimp files if enough request.

I realize some are all for the game play but if your like me and like how something looks as well, then reply to this thread.

**(Animated Textures and Simple Moving Materials (water and lava etc) I may make a guide on but for the moment I want to concentrate on the above)**

_reason for this guide would be the fact that I struggled myself with it and have spent an incredible amount of time learning how to properly use the mat editor along with PS or Gimp. So I wish to share if others are willing to listen.

 

[Murphy]

E-cookie. I'm interested.

Using only a combiner or only a shader for reflection works but they won't react properly to light. Ex. being in total dark you can easily see a reflection on a surface. 2nd Ex. would be make an entire room full of combiners to create a reflection. Shine your flashlight in the map, you can easily see it does not work the way it should.

I suffer from this all the time. If you know a work-around, don't hesitate to share it!

 

[J.D.*]

....

 

[J.D.*]

Please note, the above is only a reply to murphys problem, I will make a guide that is much easier to read, follow and covers all topics but I need to know people are interested first.

 

[Murphy]

I read it and took a look at the example map and it's true! The old shine sticking through darkness but getting swallowed by light problem is gone!

Thanks for this. I'll be using this in the future.

 

[J.D.*]

Np Murphy. This particular problem seems to be pretty engine specific. I remember going through all the stock maps to see how it was done but for the most part all I saw was either a shader or a combiner for reflection. When I thought I had it figured, I blocked out a cube real fast put a reflection on all the surfaces using only combiners and wow, shine your flashlight and it seems to light one surface at a time and blackening the others. Then of course I tried only shaders and lolz you can see the reflection perfectly in pure dark.

Anyway, glad to see some interest in this, look foward to your future maps with some kick *** shaders applied .