real time, masks editor.

Xajai

Hey guys,
I spend way more time working on my masks and testing the items in the game than actually working on more items or concepts. Maybe its my lack of experience or the way the shaders work on the items under the different conditions of light in the game.

I have very little to no programming experience. But I had this idea a while back while doing my first dota2 items. I have no idea if something like this would be possible. My guess is it would be, some sort of plugin for source film maker maybe?

Anyways, its just a value slider for brightness that affects each of the channels, while updating the model in real time. any ideas?

heboltz3

So I got some python knowledge in my back pocket, and I believe that this would be a pretty size able amount of work. I'm not sure brightness would be the "go-to" for the sliders either, since not all of the channels run on black -> white. SFM might not be the best place for this tool as well, the lighting doesn't necessarily reflect game lighting, and you can create lights to make the scene more game esque.

I think a stronger alternative would be in conjunction with This, writing a script for a 3d application that allows you to do a similar thing thing. Either way, it would be a large amount of work, (reading textures from external sources, dividing that up into separate channels, increasing decreasing channel darkness, displaying this in real time, confirming changes to channels, saving channels, exporting new texture as a .tga format, and this isn't even the GUI.)

I do LOVE the idea of writing tools for dota, and have been thinking about creating some sort of auto rigger based of the skeletal structure/ naming hierarchy that valve provides an all the characters.

Noth

Yeah, wonderful idea but doubt it would get created unless valve took it upon themselves and really wanted to make it easy for the workshop artists. It would prolly be viewed as more of a luxury than anything, even though it would speed things up and increase quality.

Xajai

i think you are right. this tool in conjunction with that shader would be amazing. and i think you are right, brightness wouldnt be the way to go. maybe a brightness/contrast. Ill have to figure out how to use that shader.

heboltz3

Quick, to the shader Batman!

vlad_the_implyer

We kinda started a thing like this, but turned out that viewport shader/borderless window Dota2 is still way faster. I guess some scripts could streamline the process, but this will still be more troublesome than just firing up Dota 2 and checking out with a quick import, especially since some of the latest material settings are not looking the same in the shader.