Source Engine and specularity

CheeseOnToast

Am I right in thinking that the only type of shiny surface you can get in Source is by environment mapping and cubemaps? There's no "standard" spec mapping? I'm having real trouble getting the look I want for certain things, as envmapping tends to make things look reflective rather than just shiny. I have tried all sorts of stuff in the .vmt files to control it (tint, saturation, contrast etc.) So far the results have been either so minor that it's almost not worth even having a spec pass, or so over the top that everything gets a mirror-like finish. Any Source gurus out there with any tips and tricks? and what the hell does "$halflambert" do? The wiki is pretty inadequate when it comes to stuff like this....

Peris

yep, source only supports specularity through cubemaps. Though you can change cubemap size somehow. Maybe a low res blurry cubemap can make things more shiny but yeah its very hard. source is just pretty crappy with specularity, eventhough you can make awesome looking metallic stuff in it

CheeseOnToast

Cheers Peris, at least now I know it's not just me

Eric Chadwick

Small specular-style cubemaps are easy to make with ATI's tool. You can even load your own meshes, easy to preview with.
http://www.ati.com/developer/cubemapgen/index.html

warby

i dont htink you can hook in homebrew cubemaps but maybe iam wrong i tougehd when you tell the shader to be cubemaped it will choose thecosest cubemap entity in that specific map you are currently playing

Peris

you can put in you own cubemaps, its just like making a skybox and then selecting that envmap in the vmy file

CheeseOnToast

Yeah, seems simple enough. Just change the vmt line from "enmap" "env_cubemap" to "envmap" "(your home-brew cubemap)" I would guess. Thanks for the suggestions.