Dota 2 Cosmetics - Specular exponent?
Hello everyone, if there is a better area to post this please let me know.
I cannot get my mask2.tga to show in the in game preview, everything else is working. I thought the issue may be because I didnt have it applied to the specular color channel of my PhongE material in Maya but that had no affect on the issue.
I've come to the theory that perhaps its that my specular exponent is not set and thus my full white alpha is not blowing the specular out on my item in preview. Below is the information from Valve on the mask2 32 bit specular map.
"Alpha is the scale factor of specular exponent from shader. For example, if the specular exponent is set to 16, then values for this channel of 0...255 will control exponent values from 0 to 16. Look at the hero's specular exponent number to get a good idea of what values to use in this channel for your item."
Where is this "specular exponent number"? I see nothing of the sort on the shader in Maya.
I cannot get my mask2.tga to show in the in game preview, everything else is working. I thought the issue may be because I didnt have it applied to the specular color channel of my PhongE material in Maya but that had no affect on the issue.
I've come to the theory that perhaps its that my specular exponent is not set and thus my full white alpha is not blowing the specular out on my item in preview. Below is the information from Valve on the mask2 32 bit specular map.
"Alpha is the scale factor of specular exponent from shader. For example, if the specular exponent is set to 16, then values for this channel of 0...255 will control exponent values from 0 to 16. Look at the hero's specular exponent number to get a good idea of what values to use in this channel for your item."
Where is this "specular exponent number"? I see nothing of the sort on the shader in Maya.
Replies
Hope that helps.
However, if the exponent is in the VMT then it must be prespecified for each item? Considering you submit .tga files as your textures, and .fbx as your model. The compiler just applies the stored VMT properties to the uploaded files for preview?
Even using valves default mask2 file on my model I see zero specular, the model is completely matte, also does not receive shading.
Anyone have ideas?
You can see I've plugged in the default mask1 and 2 textures for DKs original weapon. I would expect to see some gloss/spec on the texture where the UVs and the mask intersect, but I do not. Making me relatively sure the masks are being discarded entirely during the compile.
I noticed if I export the model FBX without the textures im using plugged in to the color and bump channels on the shader, they do not load properly in Dota 2 when i preview.
My question is, does anyone know where to load the mask1 and mask2 textures in the PhongE shader in Maya before exporting? I think this may be my issue. (I have tried Mask2 in specular color channel, didnt work.)
My problem turned out to be on the exponent alpha on Mask2.
I was testing this layer with full black and full white to try to get a specular. Turns out you must be in the mid range to get anything or it completely kills the shadows and specular on the item.