To whom it may concern: I implemented metalness for Unreal Engine dbuffer decals. It's something that people have wanted for a couple of years now and I'm not finished with all I have planned, but once I'm done, we should have a better workflow for the stuff that's discussed here. Since this is UE-specific, I'll direct you…
Sounds like he is using the UV projection method Obscura describes here. I cannot fully understand his UE4 setup seen on the screenshot, but he describes it as messy and "not teach people bad habits", therefore I would probably not use it myself. Looks like the Starfigher Inc. team has some success with the decal system,…
Maya must have 'face weighted normals' option somewhere. Max has various scripts for that last time I checked. I think this decal technique is really useful for adding panelings etc. but I can't see the benefit of it around the champered edges when using angle/face weighted normals on the mesh. edit: I found this link…
K so Obscura The tri-planar projection set-up, is that just for the sake of not having 'seams' on the tiled map (I thought that was the point of tri-planar projection, from what I've looked up about it) Or is it somehow required for projecting the normal map data from the decals as well? (just trying to figure out how much…
Yeah, exactly! And it's pretty simple to set up if you have a clear idea of how exactly you want your shader to interpret that packed map. Makes it really easy to iterate on stuff too - instead of editing textures, you just drag sliders until you're satisfied with results. Basically, my approach is like having a tiny, tiny…
I've stayed away from this workflow for a long time for just this reason. Most of what I see out there is a look that is too clean for my taste. I've gotten some good results using a second UV channel rather than decals. This allows for all material blends and even custom grunge on floating details, but it's a little more…
Nope. Deffered decals don't require uniform texel density. But, in your situation, you'd want that anyway (or at least a consistent texel density between objects that will use the same material type). If you're blending between several materials (layered material) then yes you'd want a uniform texel density across…
This might not be new to people here, but it wasn't obvious to me. You can actually get completely smooth shading gradients between faces in curved quad strips if your mapping has no seams! I thought that wasn't possible, but proper mapping makes everything perfectly smooth. This allows you to drop huge circular decals…
A technique that is accessible and usable in a proper way, for almost noone still lol. In Unreal , they made it possible to slap the decal material on meshes, but it still can't "overlay" and you need to hack with the opacity and normal intensity. color blending with an another mask also not possible so if I would do…
Obscura recommended this technique for a project where I need to detail. So let me get this straight and please correct me if I'm wrong. -I create a texture sheet of normal map shapes (in my case I would be using NDO) -I also make a mask sheet for the normal map sheet -In the 3D program (my case Maya), I create a bunch of…