quick glow map question...

fritz

i found a good tutorial here about glow maps.
http://korana.elricm.com/Tutorials_Glow_Mapping.htm

my only question...is where do you place this texture once you have created it? anybody know?

thakns

Joao Sapiro

in the self ilumination material part in the standard shader i guess

cholden

here's a little tutorial I put together for setting up materials in Max (normal, spec, color and glow)
http://chrisholden.net/tutor/maxnm_material.jpg
not specific to glow, but quickly covers applying on to a material in Max.

fritz

ahhhhh....the old self-illumination slot. that'll get ya every time. thanks man. never used that before.

cheers.

Xenobond

I actually find that using the self illumination slot is not the best bet for getting the appearance of how glow maps work in-game. I use the shellac material so that the additive blending is correct.

Here's a mini-addendum-

You can keep the material layout that cholden had there, and then add it to your Shellac material in the base slot. The Shellac material works as a two material, additive blend. Whatever you put into the Shellac slot will act as photoshops 'screen' layer blendmode. With that in mind, you'd set the Color Blend spinner amount to 100, so that it'll be fully applied.

In the Shellac material, but your glow map in the diffuse slot, and set the Self-Illumination to 100% so that it'll glow whether it's in the light or the dark.

That FAQ should have included a question for 'Why the hell would you want a glow map on the eyes and lips?' As that particular application of the map is pretty useless.

Toomas

Xenobond why do soldiers paint their faces?

Xenobond

They paint their faces as part of their camoflage to break up the recognizable pattern of their face. They wouldn't use glowing paint though, that's for damn sure.

Toomas

Its because faces atually glow in the dark...

Xenobond

Oh yeah, I forgot. That episode of Star Trek was just on last night.

Joseph Silverman

[ QUOTE ]
They paint their faces as part of their camoflage to break up the recognizable pattern of their face.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also to lighten the parts that usually shadow, and darken the parts the usually highlight, in theory making them harder to spot from a distance.

But I think this is off topic...

fritz

hahaha. yeah just a tad off topic. but i don't care. tis funny.

thanks all for the responses. i actually don't want to glow my dudes face like that. he's gonna have a mechanical backpack thingy that will need some glowy bits.

one more question, does it only show up in render? or can i view in viewport?

Xenobond

http://www.morphographic.com/Diversions/MaxPlugins/Diversions_3DMAXPluginsCompositeMode.htm

That map plugin will composite the glow map onto your diffuse and display it in the viewport.

fritz

thanks a bunch Xeno!!!

MoP

Or if you have Max8, it should display it in the viewport if you enable DirectX Display of Material, and put the glow map in the Self Illumination slot, with the "Color" checkbox ticked.

oXYnary

Can glowmaps be of a smaller texture resolution than your diffuse if they have less defined edges (as per face shown in example)?

I am interested in why glow was used in the face. Wouldnt that be better for gloss (sharper specs) where he put such?

MoP

oXYnary: Yes, in that tutorial, I don't know why he used the glow map for those things. As Xenobond said, faces don't emit light. That stuff is better suited to spec.

You're right though, glow maps can be of smaller texture resolution, if they don't need any small details or sharp definition. I think the Art Reference section on Q4 in iddevnet.com mentions this.

oXYnary

Admit it, your getting a commission everytime you mention that site..

(Goes and looks)

Bronco

hehe Oxy,I wouldn't be surprised,he does work for Splash after all which is an ID studio .

I learnt something here.

John