Texture painting glass

Spur

Hi guys. I have a question about glass windows in games. What are some things I can do to give the appearance of glass? Would it mostly consist of just adding some dirt/grime and maybe painting in some shine or reflection? How do you usually go about this. I know a lot probably varies with the engine but just an idea in general.

DarthNater

Basically just do a diffuse as you normally would, then create a transparency map (grayscale). Reflections will depend on what engine you are using, but usually (unless you're using a real old or basic engine) you don't add any reflections to your diffuse.

kodde

One major part would be reflections, having something move across the surface. You can't fake this only with a diffuse texture as far as I know. You would also want a transparent material or at least an illusion of an inside painted in the diffuse texture. Maybe combine with having a transparent material for the glass, then a flat polygon plane just behind it with an illusion of the inside. This would give you a parallax feeling.

pior

make the corners slightly opaque to simulate accumulated dirt (checkout DMC4 and FFXII)

Anuxinamoon

putting smudges on the spec can help. When I had to do some glass, I did what pior suggested and build up dust in the corners. That and giving it a slightly green tinge (it was very grimy glass) helps alot

mLichy

yeah, I second the comment above. Unless it's supposed to be something brand new, well even still.. add some light smudges or something to break up the spec of the surface.

onionhead_o

so just transparency and spec is good enough? wut bout cubemap?

Shogun3d

You can use cubemaps.