Previewing specmaps?
polycounter lvl 18
how do you guys go about previewing the specmaps you paint?
Im doin my first ever complete normalmapped texture (scifi'ic floor thingy) and well so far its all been good. However im now painting the spec map but is a little unsure how it will look "in action". I mean i can render images and see how it looks kinda but its still just a single frame. Moving my lights in the viewport doesnt help much either. Im guessing i can do a animation of a 100 frames or something but that seemes like a last resort? (since it takes like 30 minutes..)
Im doin my first ever complete normalmapped texture (scifi'ic floor thingy) and well so far its all been good. However im now painting the spec map but is a little unsure how it will look "in action". I mean i can render images and see how it looks kinda but its still just a single frame. Moving my lights in the viewport doesnt help much either. Im guessing i can do a animation of a 100 frames or something but that seemes like a last resort? (since it takes like 30 minutes..)
Replies
If you're using 3dsmax's default DX Display material, try using Ben Cloward's normal-map specular HLSL shader, it works very well, if I remember right, it takes the spec colour and strength from the RGB of a 32-bit TGA, and uses the alpha channel for glossiness (size of the highlight).