2-sided and Opacity issues
by William Sweetman · in Artist Corner · 04/02/2006 (5:55 pm) · 5 replies
Hey guys this is my first post here. I'm currently working on getting a banner into the engine, i've exported it with the 2 sided option in 3dsmax and i have the alpha map in the opacity slot. This is what the tutorial says to do, but when i toss it in engine it doesn't display properly. It displays as if there is no alpha map and the 2 sided option was not clicked. Any suggestions.
#2
04/02/2006 (9:23 pm)
Usually some of us cheat and copy the Diffuse channel PNG into the Opacity channel slot. You should also look at the DTS exporter settings to ensure you didn't turn any options off either.
#3
04/04/2006 (4:39 am)
Ok so just make the PNG texture with no background and toss it into the opacity slot?
#4
You can use 2 jpegs as well instead of a PNG. One jpeg will be the color and named somthing like "MyTexture.jpg". the other will have your Alpha channel and be named "MyTexture.alpha.jpg". I like this solution better because it is more inline with MAX material setup and you can visualize how it will look in game. Also 2 jpegs are usually smaller than 1 png with an alpha channel, so that makes the distribution cheaper. Torque will automatically pick up on the 2 texture scenerio.
Also (not to get ahead of you) if you are using the lighting pack best thing to do for two sided objects is just make 2 faces back to back and scale one of them at least 1% smaller or larger so the verts don't merge. This will allow your 2 sided object to receive lighting from the TLK lights. Basically thats the same thing that happens when you check 2 sided material except dts exporter merges the verts and that leaves the vert normal at [0,0,0] so lighting can't be calculated.
Matt
04/04/2006 (2:31 pm)
And make sure in your DTS export Dialog (utility panel) that "export 2 sided materials" is not turned off, and 2 sided is checked in your material editor.You can use 2 jpegs as well instead of a PNG. One jpeg will be the color and named somthing like "MyTexture.jpg". the other will have your Alpha channel and be named "MyTexture.alpha.jpg". I like this solution better because it is more inline with MAX material setup and you can visualize how it will look in game. Also 2 jpegs are usually smaller than 1 png with an alpha channel, so that makes the distribution cheaper. Torque will automatically pick up on the 2 texture scenerio.
Also (not to get ahead of you) if you are using the lighting pack best thing to do for two sided objects is just make 2 faces back to back and scale one of them at least 1% smaller or larger so the verts don't merge. This will allow your 2 sided object to receive lighting from the TLK lights. Basically thats the same thing that happens when you check 2 sided material except dts exporter merges the verts and that leaves the vert normal at [0,0,0] so lighting can't be calculated.
Matt
#5
04/28/2006 (2:28 pm)
Thanks guys, i got it to work. 
Torque Owner Bruno Grieco