Glowing Texture
by Quest Johnny · in General Discussion · 05/23/2004 (11:41 am) · 16 replies
Does anyone know how to make a mesh "glow?" or making a glowing object?
I want to have a mesh that seems to be bathed in bright light, even if the ambient light is low, for example, for a force-field or a border around an object.
I know how to do particle effects, how to create fxLights, and to create items which have light (the kind that pour onto the terrain) - none of them seem to affect the luminescence of the texture itself.
I have a sort of energy cube with a PNG texture which is bright, bright green, and I want it to appear as that bright in the game. I can do it by making the ambient light on the terrain very high, but is there a way to make it brightly lit regardless of ambient light?
I have tried putting light0,light1 nodes into static shapes, as dummies, but no dice.
I want to have a mesh that seems to be bathed in bright light, even if the ambient light is low, for example, for a force-field or a border around an object.
I know how to do particle effects, how to create fxLights, and to create items which have light (the kind that pour onto the terrain) - none of them seem to affect the luminescence of the texture itself.
I have a sort of energy cube with a PNG texture which is bright, bright green, and I want it to appear as that bright in the game. I can do it by making the ambient light on the terrain very high, but is there a way to make it brightly lit regardless of ambient light?
I have tried putting light0,light1 nodes into static shapes, as dummies, but no dice.
About the author
#3
How do I do glowing effects?
05/23/2004 (2:26 pm)
I turned self-illumination on, 100% and exported, no change.. and I tried with a bitmap there too, 100% - no change. Do I need to put something in the .cs too? (It's an Item.)How do I do glowing effects?
#4
05/23/2004 (2:46 pm)
As I said before, it is in the shader engine, which is to be out soon...
#5
05/23/2004 (2:52 pm)
Most engines have additive brush FX and or 2x modulation so you can easily do nice glow effects, or prince of persia type glow and bloom effects with almost no overhead. Dowsn't need any shaders either :)
#6
Essentially it makes objects 'full bright', regardless of the ambient light. Still a ways off from 'glowing' (ala Tron 2.0) but better than nothing. I'm not sure how it reacts with non-.dif objects but given that it's setup on a per-texture basis I don't see why you couldn't use it on .dts files.
Anyway, hope this helps. :)
05/23/2004 (3:46 pm)
You may find this useful: www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=4962Essentially it makes objects 'full bright', regardless of the ambient light. Still a ways off from 'glowing' (ala Tron 2.0) but better than nothing. I'm not sure how it reacts with non-.dif objects but given that it's setup on a per-texture basis I don't see why you couldn't use it on .dts files.
Anyway, hope this helps. :)
#7
05/24/2004 (8:45 am)
Gave it a try for items.. I'll try again, but no luck on the first try :)
#8
05/24/2004 (8:50 am)
You can enable additive blending by finding the checkbox for "additive alpha" in max. That works..
#9
05/24/2004 (8:58 am)
You could also have a look at the glowy effects we did in realmwars.. additive alpha wise.. they have the max files in there too I believe. 
#10
05/24/2004 (9:01 am)
The lighting pack has a great fire effect as well...
#11
06/16/2008 (9:35 am)
I've tried setting illumination to 100 in MAX (top dialer) but still nothing when it exports.. Is there another setting somewhere I need to put (eg Billboards BB::) to get the exporter to export it as "do not shade?" 
#12
06/16/2008 (12:29 pm)
4 years later . . .
#13
06/16/2008 (12:35 pm)
Suggesting I should need a new fresh post? 
#15
I think if you want only a specific part of an object to be shiny, then you might want to use one separate texture solely for the shiny part. I just started experimenting with shaders and materials, so I might be wrong, but the docs will be a nice place to start anyway.
06/16/2008 (1:13 pm)
In TGEA, specify a material which uses your texture, and for that material, play with the glow and emissive properties. See the new TGEA docs under Materials and Shaders, it's all there nice and clean.I think if you want only a specific part of an object to be shiny, then you might want to use one separate texture solely for the shiny part. I just started experimenting with shaders and materials, so I might be wrong, but the docs will be a nice place to start anyway.
#16
06/16/2008 (6:07 pm)
Thanks Konrad, but I need just regular TGE (Useful for those TGEArs who find the thread tho!) 
Associate Kevin Ryan
Top Meadow Inc.