Fix texture black_matt?

[SteveL]

I raised a tracker to fix texture darkmod/sfx/black_matt but want to check with mappers first because it's been used in loads of maps.

 

The description of black_matt is:

//matt black - there are already blacks but cannot get _black nor bc_black to reference as diffusemap

 

Whoever set up black_matt didn't quite know how to achieve the right effect. It's not really matt black. The tga image is rgb 1,1,1 instead of 0,0,0 so it reflects some diffuse light (I assume they tried a 0,0,0 image and found it didn't work), plus It's light-interacting so it has default specularity. It can look distinctly grey if you put a light right next to it and look at it from an oblique angle. Really it should have been set up to be opaque but not be light-interacting at all. A 0,0,0 filter blend instead of a diffuse map, combined with the forceOpaque keyword, would probably be right.

 

I used this texture in a map that I was working on before getting into TDM coding, for the bottom of wells, and to block holes in walls where rods poke through etc, where I wanted to make shallow holes appear to be deeper than the player could see while sealing the visleaf. I'm not sure how others have used it though. I did an existing map check and it's been used lots. Should we change it to be properly black?

[SteveL]

Forgot to add, there's another texture darkmod/sfx/black_near which is meant to be the light-interacting version of black_matt. From the mtr file:

 

//near black - created for gamma_ref map, this attempts to be the darkest texture distinguishable from black

[nbohr1more]

Yes that should be fixed. As I recall, pure black textures are treated as an error by the engine though so you might still need to be one notch above unless that's changed since the GPL release.

[SteveL]

That would explain why that diffuse map has 1,1,1 color instead of 0,0,0. But I expect that we can use 0,0,0 in a blend and force it to be treated as an opaque solid surface using the keyword.

[SteveL]

I'm now thinking of creating a new texture instead of modifying the old one. The old description doesn't actually specify 0,0,0, and it *is* extremely dark. It worked fine for the purpose I mentioned above, for the bottom of pits and holes. The only time it's been a problem is when I've been using it in test maps for transparent textures and particles, where I use it as a backdrop to examine additive shader stages. The dim reflections from matt_black have been a niusance. I should probably just add a pair of opaque textures to the sfx folder, "full_black" and "full_white".

[stumpy]

a "matt black" would absorb light making it look a "dull black", while a "shiny black" is a "ivory black" which reflects some of the light it recieves.