Epi's Many Questions Thread

[Bikerdude]

@epi, where is that giant tranformer tower you created - as I can't seem to find it.

[Epifire]

@epi, where is that giant tranformer tower you created - as I can't seem to find it.

 

Oh sorry bout that. More in part to my funky naming conventions but it's in my uploaded stuff listed as charger_mast_001. It has one skin and loads in two texture sheets, which should all be in the epi-repository. But yeah I look at it now and the name is seriously jank.

[Bikerdude]

the name is fine fella, I just didnt now where it was.

[Epifire]

Heya, kinda out there question but has anyone tried testing out various post process effects on TDM? I had recently been going through a guide to tweak different games with Nvidia Inspector, like adding SSAO or boosting Anti Aliasing. Tried targeting the Doom 3 client as I knew TDM was based off it but I didn't have much luck. Guessing I'd maybe have to set one for the actual game exe then?

 

I'm sure it would have bugs with alpha sorting (as it's a post process effect) but with more standard setups I think standard SSAO or even the greater HBAO would look great in TDM.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Epifire

[Spooks]

Hey, Epifire, as someone (I forget who) pointed out elsewhere on the forum, you can try ReShade's MXAO/ GI implementation as Nvidia's SSAO won't work with OpenGL. From playing around with it I can say it works well enough but I don't like that there's no user friendly way to combine it with other ReShade effects (I use RS for MSAA and a debanding filter). If someone knows how to, give me a shout.

 

https://reshade.me/forum/shader-presentation/1874-marty-mcfly-s-ambient-obscurance-mxao-with-il

[Epifire]

Hmm any attempt at running ReShade's effects causes my game to run black. The main menu and all. Removing the shader files and just installing it black (with no effects) still results in a black screen now. I know it's visual as I can run my mouse through the screen and hear it highlight over the menu buttons. Just can't get it to work and now my TDM is broke.

[Epifire]

Hey, another random Epi-question. Anyone know if you can use the greatly simplified gray scale image over an rgb bitmap for specular? All I know is I can take a 12mb image down to 4 since I'm cutting it from three channels down to one. Only applies for non-colored specular highlights though.

[Springheel]

Most specularmaps are greyscale. Just converting the diffusemap will probably be too bright for most things though--you'll want to darken it.

[Epifire]

Oh yeah, I definitely don't convert anything off the diffuse anymore. I was mainly concerned about getting rid of the other two junk channels not contributing anything (since specular only requires one). I just tested it on the newest propset I just wrapped up and it worked fine (no engine glitches as far as I'm aware of). Other than that I just wanted to make sure it didn't break some other aspect, as I couldn't recall the wiki mentioning anything about it. Least to say I'll be converting all my specular maps to this method as it's much more size efficient.

[rich_is_bored]

There is purpose to color in a specular map but the effect is subtle...

 

 

In the case of conductive materials like metals the light reflected should be similarly colored. In the case of dielectric materials like wood it should be the inverse.

 

A more thorough explanation can be found here...

 

http://www.manufato.com/?p=902

[Epifire]

EDIT: Epi found himself a simpler way.

Edited November 26, 2016 by Epifire

[Epifire]

Hey, so here's a thought. Has anybody tried to blend ambient occlusion onto a mesh that currently utilizes a tiling diffuse?

 

I was thinking of an easy way to make wide use of a basic tiling texture on a model (say rocks for instance). So what really makes this a usable option or not is if you can scale the diffuse independent of the other blend function in the mtr.

 

{
blend diffusemap
map   models/darkmod/props/textures/example_diffuse_map
scale <tile value here>
}
{


blend blend
map      models/darkmod/props/textures/example_AO_map
}

Probably not quite like that but the idea is to be able to tile the diffuse and still preserve the UV coordinates of the AO map. If I could do this, I easily could do up a nice exterior set using just a couple tiling textures and one large image storing all the AO data. The position for the UVs only really needs to cover what's important regarding the AO coverage because the diffuse is tiled anyway in this example.

[nbohr1more]

It should work, yes.

 

I think the best route is a 3 step process.

 

1) Bake the AO texture to it's own UV

2) Apply the tiling texture with it's own UV

3) Re-apply the AO texture with the tiling UV and contort it to it's previous appearance then bake to a new AO texture

 

Now you have an AO texture that fits perfectly over a tiled UV.

 

Typically, you want "blend filter" for an AO map though.

 

I don't know if there's anything out there that can automate this.

 

Arcturus would be the expert there as I recall. (Example map with AO.)

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/arcturuss-christmas-gift

 

The other option? Bake AO into the VertexColor of the model.

 

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Ambient_occlusion_vertex_color

[Epifire]

Checked out Arcturus' mtr and it seems he uses Blend Filter for the floor shadow. Now that I recall I think he mentioned that somewhere in a post here on the same thread actually.

 

Something else that popped out at me is this Faogen third party app. I hadn't really considered vertex baked shadows but it may be the easiest option as it already supports .lwo files by default. Only downside is I can't test it's full compatibility with TDM unless I buy the thing. Certainly looks like a very handy tool for any kind of old game development though so I may just pick it up anyway (or once I have some spare cash). Considering how simple and fast the tool is, I could run full sets of level geometry through the thing and be able to convert a lot of modeled level geometry for cheap that way.

[Epifire]

Question for all you fellas regarding difficulty options. Is it possible to have variable scenarios and condition states (for script objects in a world) that respond to difficulty settings? I was thinking to myself how it would be to have different doors, and world features that could be enabled (or disabled) depending on if you were playing easy/med/hard, etc. Maybe people do this already and I haven't seen it? It does seem like a less linear way of adding more play through value by changing the actual scenarios based off the difficulty.

 

In this sense you could funnel, or even bottleneck areas to increase the challenge presented to the player. That grate or sewer access could be locked in a harder playthrough, whereas it's open on easier difficulties to provide more options. Or you could take it a step further and have whole environmental changes that are set to be visible or removed. Maybe a pain to setup but the result would be pretty cool.

[Destined]

There are the "diff_#_nospawn" spawnargs (#= 0,1,2 set for difficulty). With them you can prevent entities from spawning for specific difficulties. I.e. you can give a func_static wall "diff_0_nospawn 1" and it would not appear on Easy, but on higher difficulties (thus creating an entrance for only one difficulty). The same should be possible with active vs non-active doors. You create two doors in the same spot, one a func_static and one a door. Then you give the func_static "diff_#_nospawn 1" for each difficulty you want the door to be active and the actual door "diff_#_nospawn 1" for each other difficulty. The only thing I just noticed is that you have to type the spawnargs by hand as they are not listed regularly. If you want to see an example use of it, take a look at the startmap package. There all the lockpicks, tools and weapons have these spawnargs, so the map author can easily decide, which tools are available for the player.

[Springheel]

You can do quite a lot with difficulty levels--different lights, different patrols, etc:

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Difficulty_Levels

[HMart]

There is purpose to color in a specular map but the effect is subtle...

 

 

In the case of conductive materials like metals the light reflected should be similarly colored. In the case of dielectric materials like wood it should be the inverse.

 

A more thorough explanation can be found here...

 

http://www.manufato.com/?p=902

 

Exactly, i know that a blueish specular map can be used to better simulate metals and organic stuff like flesh, for example.

[Epifire]

That's really good to know about the difficulty spawnargs. I'll have to write some of this down when I actually do up my own FM (someday?).

 

Something else directly pressing in some recent work I've been trying to do. Long story short, I need a Sub Surface Scattering shader. I feel like it should be possible but I'm not one to judge as I can't make them myself. Does anyone have an existing shader program available that could apply a kind of thickness based highlight from local point lights to said object?

[Destined]

That's really good to know about the difficulty spawnargs. I'll have to write some of this down when I actually do up my own FM (someday?).

As Springheel wrote: You can simply check the "Difficulty Levels" Wiki page. There are quite good descriptions, what you can do (and it is a lot).

[Epifire]

Hey fellas, quick question for the Epi thread once again. So I was wondering about something. When taking screenshots (via TDM's screenshot function) is there a way to correct the gamma settings that aren't applied? For some reason whenever I take a screenshot I have to go and edit the gamma in Photoshop to correct the results to what I actually see in game. Otherwise everything looks over brightened and kinda ruins good lighting.

[peter_spy]

Yeah, sceenshots are taken with gamma 1.0. Not sure why that would ruin anything though. If anything, you should get more contrasty look, but that's all. I just add gamma in IrfanView before saving the image for web.

[Epifire]

It just throws my lighting mood off is all. I figured it was just how the system worked but I'd been wondering what alternatives are (besides manually replacing the gamma loss). I tried to see if Nvidia Experience had a different result but sadly it faced the same problem.

[peter_spy]

I just found out that Fraps includes both gamma settings and con_noprint data while capturing screenshots, awesome.

[Epifire]

So I have a strange question for the Epi-thread tonight. Is it even possible to create a lighting method (theory here) to use a texture light as a blend multiply instead of additive function. In other words a darkness map.