Material Editor Maps
by Markus · in Torque 3D Professional · 08/04/2010 (4:31 am) · 1 replies
Hello there,
Sort of a beginner question, but was wanting to find out about some information regarding some of the maps found in the material editor in T3D.
I'm familiar with the diffuse, normal, spec, detail, and detail normal maps and how to use them... but I'm NOT familiar with overlay map, tone map, light map, and especially the new one in T3D 1.1 Beta2-- Env Map. Anyone know how these work, what they're primarily used for, and what a sample texture of each of these might look like?
Your help would be greatly appreciated!
Sort of a beginner question, but was wanting to find out about some information regarding some of the maps found in the material editor in T3D.
I'm familiar with the diffuse, normal, spec, detail, and detail normal maps and how to use them... but I'm NOT familiar with overlay map, tone map, light map, and especially the new one in T3D 1.1 Beta2-- Env Map. Anyone know how these work, what they're primarily used for, and what a sample texture of each of these might look like?
Your help would be greatly appreciated!
About the author
Torque Owner TheGasMan
G.A.S. [+others]
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These next maps work on UV channel 2:
- overlay maps - In theory, this map should work like a screen or multiply blend depending on the base texture's color..but, currently in 1.1B1 the texture only lays on top of the base texture with the allowance of alpha support, of course. In essence, currently a 'decal map'
(...but who knows as this is a beta and it could simply not be fully hooked up yet.)
- tone maps - in 1.1B1, this map acts like 60-70% of the blended map opacity is removed, yet, I haven't really looked into whether or not there is any blending occurring.
- light maps - in 1.1B1, this map acts like a color dodge blend with a near 50% opacity of the blended layer(which is the light map texture)
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I can not answer the ENV map question pertaining to T3D1.1B2, simply because no one(normal client) has Beta2 yet.[edit://turns out it was released and I did not notice it..I am avoiding downloading it until I can get an discussion sorted with the EULA...so someone else will have to answer this if needed.]
- ENV map - can simply be thought of as a reflection cubemap but without the need for 6 images to create a cube. The job is done by 1 image alone. Open the editor and play around with different textures to see the possibilities with blending options in T3D. Just be aware that many advanced lights + many complex materials = Your FPS are screwed :P.
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These next maps work on UV channel 1:
- Detail map - is a (quite hard)hard light blend that allows UV scaling
- Detail normal map - is simply broken..
Expect a few of the material functions to be broken until, what I am guessing will be version 1.8/2.0. It's a complex'ish set of blending functions that they are trying to give to us...there is bound to be a few bumps in the road.