Particle effects, usually simple flat textures on quad polygons, drawn always facing the camera, usually with an additive material so that they "glow" when sorted on top of each other.
Yeah, that's what UE4 seems to use by default, no idea why they opted to waste the green channel on a (usually) 1 bit mask. (I build my unity shaders to use ARM, usually)
It usually that the preview maps arent updating. Quick hack: just go to the options tap(top right) and set the preview resolution to full. Usually gives it a kick in the butt and it will start working after that.
I think something like 2 or 3 weeks usually, but there are many that are quicker than me...also i don't concept much, i usually explore shapes and volumes direclty in zbrush.
Hmm, usually the reason for triangulating is to remove the chances of xNormal having issues with nGons. Those are usually found in the highpoly. So yes, you really should. What sort of horrific shading issues?
6150 is usually onboard so i guess the socket is 939 or am2, and second would still work and both usually have pci-xpress (maybe not 2.0 but it eats new graphics cards)
Model the wood grain? What the heck? usually the wood on weapons are usually polished and varnish. Why would you need to model the wood grain? O_o or am I totally wrong here?
Prob solved! Turns out I was baking with my usual Y- swizzle cord in Xnormal I wasn't aware they all had to be + I usually bake tangent space maps. Thanks
Usually I see FBX files, those usually don't include the full rig don't they? I don't really have experience in animation though, might try some simple ones.
I do it on a semi regular basis but as some of the others that do the same in this thread, I work for a small company. I usually don't mind, it's usually technical stuff that interests me anyway.