Understanding Materials

[Springheel]

In the following material:

 

models/mymodels/longsword

 

{

renderbump -size 1024 1024 -aa 1 -trace 0.1 models/mymodels/longsword_local.tga models/mymodels/longswordhigh.lwo

 

 

bumpmap models/mymodels/longsword_local.tga

diffusemap models/mymodels/longsword_d.tga

specularmap models/mymodels/longsword_s.tga

 

 

 

}

 

Can someone tell me what the purpose of the 'renderbump' line is? There's already a bumpmap listed, so I'm not quite sure what it should be doing.

[oDDity]

It's only used when the model was initially normal mapped to tell doom where to find the high res model and the name of the tga to write. You can delete it or leave it there, it make no difference now.

[Springheel]

What if there is no bumpmap listed in the materials? Will one be created by the renderbump line if I insert the model into a map and run it?

[BlackThief]

no the renderbump line will only be activated when you type it into the console like "renderbump models/renderbump/mymodel.lwo"

[Springheel]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the purpose of having it in the material shader if it doesn't do anything? I've seen these lines in a lot of the generic D3 materials as well.

 

Or is it that typing the renderbump command only works if you have that line in the material?

[BlackThief]

there's no real purpose - guess people are just too lazy to write another material shader or delete it. I'm always writing two shaders - one only for the renderbump stuff and one for the actual shader for the model...the command will never work anyway since the highres models are removed later (both in doom3 and darkmod)

[OrbWeaver]

Or is it that typing the renderbump command only works if you have that line in the material?

 

Yes, that's the only way renderbump parameters can be provided to Doom 3. I guess the idea is you set up the parameters for each skin, and then you can re-run them if you change the high-res model during development.