-= Gametoast.com =-

for the rest of you that still dont understand the misc documentation here is a quick tutorial. ( I have recieved pm's from 3 people askin for it)

okay this is how you use gloss mapping.

1.) Take the texture you are using for the polygons that need glosmapping and save them as a new file with _gloss at the end. (for example MCV_floor_tile1 becomes MCV_floor_tile1_gloss).

2.) Take that copied texture and open it, then using your texture editing program, transform your texture into a grey scale or a monocrhome image. make sure you still save this texture as a .tga. (this is the same type of texture used in bump mapping)

3.) Create a .tga.option file sharing the EXACT same name as your _gloss.tga file. (for example if I had MCV_floor_tile1_gloss.tga, the .tga.option would be MCV_floor_tile1_gloss.tga.option)

4.) Inside the .tga.option place the following lines.
-bumpmap -format bump_alpha -bumpscale 6.0

5.) Load XSI 5.0 or 5.11, and upload your scene.

6.) Using the polygon select tool, select the faces of your polygon you wish to apply gloss mapping to. then open the pandemic edit flags script.

7.) once open select render type 28. do not put anything for data0 or data1, all of your specular details (lower gloss effects) are applied through alpha channels (transparency's) and your phong material (specular decay). in the first texture box put your texture and .tga.option files name down under one name (which is why you want to always have these as the same name). for example, if my textures name was MCV_floor_tile1_gloss.tga, and my option files name was MCV_floor_tile1_gloss.tga.option, then file name I would put down in the box would be MCV_floor_tile1_gloss.... YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO ADD .TGA or .TGA.OPTION IN THESE TEXTURE BOXES. make sure you have the full folder name as well behiund your texture. so it should look like this in the texture box.
C:\BF2_ModTools\data_mcv\worlds\mcv\msh\MCV_floor_tile1_gloss

8.) simply export and your set.

(note: if you desire there to be just glossing effects without the bump mapping you simply set the bump scale from 6.0 to 0.0 inside the .tga.option file.)

here is a pic of my glossing in starforge.

WOW! Seriously, that's amazing.

It's cool but I don't think it looks good on that screenshot. But it would be great for making rocks look slippery, etc.

That's gonna look amazing in the Star Forge *drools*

I was trying to get this to work a while back, but I had no idea that it had to be so darn technical. Muchas gracias, Gogie! Starforge looks amazing, by the way .

On a side note, is using bumpmapping similar to this? Or do you not know how to use it?

Edit: Typical. It doesn't work. Is there anything that you need to do specifically to the world map in ZeroEditor Gogie? Or is there maybe something that needs to go into a msh.option file?

you need to have a diretional light set in ZE with cast specular on and cast shadows on.

it works for me.
and yes this is exactly how you do bump mapping (I bumped on ebon hawk) but bump mapping is render type 27 instead of 28.

Then what else do you have to specify to make the Bumpmap working?

I'm trying to get my RGB BumpMap working, but it... well - 'kinda' crashes the munging process xD it actually crashes the WorldMunge, which means that every landscape, sky, prop and every texture except on the sides aren't renderable.. XD *black*

what did you write in the .tga.option or .msh.option file(s) for the bump?

I set it as the exact same.

bumpmaps are gray scale only, I.E. black and white, normal maps are RGB and SWBF2 doesnt support normal mapping, thats why it crashes.

Actually, Mini - a NormalMap IS defined as a BumpMap even though it's RGB.

And according to the documentations, the game DOES support RGB Bumpmaps aka NormalsMaps...

And do you seriously think I'd post something like that if I didn't knew the difference? -_-'

I'm intending to make this work..

I just hope I won't have to hijack this thread even more - lol xD

And Mini', the next time you post like that - what about actually reading through the posts to see whether your statements already was mentioned before... they were for those who has interest in it

I know bumping goes funny colors if you try a grey scale on texture 2 and 3, but I wonder what would happen if you put rgb's in there.

I have used this tutorial http://www.gametoast.com/forums/viewtop ... =36&t=9760 but it don't work :S
I have done the steps as in the tutorial