Transparency with masking?

mobkon

Hey guys. Trying to figure this out in substance and I can't figure it out.

Basically I have a plexiglass cover that goes over a TV monitor. The outsides of the plexiglass has some graphics on it, but the inner part of the plexiglass is transparent, like glass. 

The way I have it now is I have a flat single polygon plane and I have the outer graphics on the outside with a mask to mask out the inner part of the plexiglass so the computer monitor can be seen. This is great, BUT I need there to be scratches in the roughness channel across the whole entire plane and not just the un-masked part. 

So how can I add scratches to the whole plane, yet retain the masked out graphic so you can see the monitor behind the plexiglass??

Here's an example:

Froyok

Whatever software you use (since you don't precise), you can simply add scratches over the whole roughness channel, without using the mask. It's a simple blending operation.

mobkon

Froyok said:

Whatever software you use (since you don't precise), you can simply add scratches over the whole roughness channel, without using the mask. It's a simple blending operation.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I forgot to mention I'm using Substance Painter. I have tried this before, but as a test just now (my shader set to "alpha blending") I have created a new fill layer, and I have turned off everything but opacity in the material. Yet when I drag the opacity slider left, the whole mesh disappears. It seems at 0.99 and below it just makes my mesh 100% transparent and there is no blending.

Froyok

Now I'm confused, because you talk about applying an effect in the roughness globally, and then you tell me that the opacity is not working ? What is the real problem exactly ?

mobkon

Froyok said:

Now I'm confused, because you talk about applying an effect in the roughness globally, and then you tell me that the opacity is not working ? What is the real problem exactly ?

Sorry for any confusion. I'm trying to be as detailed as possible. All I'm trying to do is get the effect in my example above. It's a piece of plexiglass with graphics on the sides but the center is transparent so you can see what's behind it, but the roughness is still visible. I suppose much like a glass effect, but I need the graphics on the sides to still be visible. 

Jerc

To get the best result you would likely need a custom shader on which the transparency only affects the diffuse term but not the specular term. I believe the default transparency in Painter will mask everything, resulting in the loss of the specular reflection as well on translucent surfaces.

mobkon

Jerc said:

To get the best result you would likely need a custom shader on which the transparency only affects the diffuse term but not the specular term. I believe the default transparency in Painter will mask everything, resulting in the loss of the specular reflection as well on translucent surfaces.

I figured it was something along these lines. Thanks for the help! I ended up just reworking my model a bit to get my desired effect.