even in newer engines shaders that support semi-opacity are expensive and complicated. Generally they need to be additive or subsurface scattering. you'd be hardpressed to find even a next gen game that really nails something like semi-transparent ice or even tinted glass. they exist, but they're not typically going to run…
I put those PDFs up on the front page Haz. Anyone have any idea why the masks are turning my items black? I engineered them based off of looking at a few other items and I see no reason that it should turn my item black. I'm guessing a few of you have some more experience creating them and know some of the common causes of…
its because you are using all the normals softened i will try to resume every face has one normal and so the pixels have a normal for each face it shares if you get a cube, each vertice will have 3 normals, but if you smooth that, the normals will share the same direction. Its is better for the engine to calculate but if…
Hi everyone. I couldn't finish my lancer set in time for the contest but recently i've finished texturing the parts and they are ready to go, except for one small fault. For some reason, my normal maps don't seem to work well in steam engine. I've baked them in 3dsMAX, the channels are the same as MAX viewport, they are…
Hey all I started working on an armor set for Windrunner, and started with the cape. But before I start unwrapping, I need to clarify what's up with 2-sided materials. I read Valve's official guide that the engine does not support 2-sided materials, and so if we want an inside/backside to something, it needs to have polys.…
the real count is triangles, a square is made of 2 triangles and is easier for us to use because its possibilities to smooth and easy to read when you look at the model, but, every square counts as 2 poligons, you need to check ALWAYS the triangle count another things that counts to the perfomance is the vertex count, if…
@Eddy Shin: If you are asking about creating new particle effects, I would stay away from them for the time being. Valve has said they are working on a new particle engine or something of the sort, and has asked us to refrain from using them until then. @Hunter-Killer: For your courier I think you should make some of the…
Maya SMD importer works fine for 32 bit MAYA. I haven't tried to export with it yet. I was going off the weapon files from the game and the guide, which got me into the UV shared border edge seam. I moved the flipped UV mirrors into another UV region and it solved the normal map generation problem. I noticed a hero model…
Ok so i've started to think about custom animation for my creations...and i don't have a clue of how to proceed...is there anyone with a big enough heart to give me some hint? Usually i save my objects in FBX...so is there a way to add animation into those files? and how would the engine recognize what animation i've…
good idea kite. I'm using an nvidia 660ti. My normals are just set to the base colour, i double checked my mask1 and mask2 for issues, it all follows the valve guide very closely. I did 95% of the texturing in photoshop, with a little adjustment in mudbox. edit1:Installing the 332.21 driver now to see if that helps at all.…