The CORRECT way to save out a SMDI.paa?

[meshcarver 12]

Hi,

I'm not too sure I'm saving my .paas out correctly?

Basically, I'm creating a greyscale image in 3rd party app, then saving that as a TGA.

Then, I open that TGA in Texviewer and run the filter over it, which makes it look blue and red as it should.

Then I save that as a .paa...

And it looks fine in the still open Texviewer.

But, when I close Texviewer and double click on the new .paa to view it, it opens looking completely different- sort of a light reddy and white colour?

Why would that be?

Any help is appreciated and here's a link to what I mean:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86890612@N02/8427992665/in/photostream

Cheers,

Marc

[[frl]myke 14]

The red/white is "how it should be". ;)

[meshcarver 12]

Hi Myke,

thanks very much for your reply man.

I am so confused, because the famous Mondkalbs Addon Tutorial, which I've done nearly 8 times now fully, says this:

http://armtac.ar.funpic.de/O2Tut/Smidi_Done.jpg

I am at a loss, because that's how it looks just after running the filter on it, not the white one...?:(

I'm really trying to get to the bottom of this, because my model is so bright and I think it may have something to do with this...

[Αplion 1122]

Assuming that you have Photoshop ... try this:

Load your original texture (colored) in photoshop and open the layers tab ... you have in there "RGB' - "Red" - "Green" and "Blue" channels.

Choose only the Red channel (all others must be hided) and go to Edit --> Fill ... and fill it with 100% White color.

Do the same for Green channel but fill it with 75% Black color.

Repeat the procedure for Blue channel filling it with 75% White color.

Make all layers visible and save as TGA.

Open the created TGA with Textview and save it as "name_smdi.paa".

You can experiment with % values.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Aplion

[max power 21]

If you are using some filter to change the colour of a grey scale image, do you think you are properly creating a specular and gloss map on the green and blue channels? If you look at the channels of your image, at the very least, your red channel is not set to 1 for all pixels. This is not a big deal since texview or buldozer will do that for you, I think.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Max Power

[rksl-rock 1300]

To be honest i just fill the Red and Blue and Alpha channels with white (255). Then just adjust the Green's levels and save as a 32bit TGA then let O2 & Buldozer convert it to PAA. Works well for me. :)

[max power 21]

To be honest i just fill the Red and Blue and Alpha channels with white (255). Then just adjust the Green's levels and save as a 32bit TGA then let O2 & Buldozer convert it to PAA. Works well for me. :)

You can just save a 24 bit image. I don't think the alpha channel of the smdi map is considered.

[meshcarver 12]

Hi, what ive now been doing is greyscale it, then 50% fill white in the red channel, invert the blue channel and thats it! Seems to work pretty well?

[max power 21]

The red channel should be 100% white. I think texview or buldozer will force that at file conversion time.

If you are satisfied with the look you get, then that's what matters. How glossy a surface is not inversely proportional to how reflective it is, though. I'm sure you can name a few materials that are both dull and rough or shiny and glossy. The gloss map helps you differentiate between the surfaces of different materials.

[Synide 0]

The red channel should be 100% white. I think texview or buldozer will force that at file conversion time.

If you are satisfied with the look you get, then that's what matters. How glossy a surface is not inversely proportional to how reflective it is, though. I'm sure you can name a few materials that are both dull and rough or shiny and glossy. The gloss map helps you differentiate between the surfaces of different materials.

That's quite true... if he was using a '_smdi'. However, he's using a '_dtsmdi'. Multi shader .rvmats use 'dtsmdi' maps in the specular stages. They can take an 'smdi' as well and the Shader uses default values. And, although he doesn't mention it that's what he's using his spec maps for at the moment.

See Multimaterial on the biki for details.

Also, as for the color variation he mentions in his first post. One should keep in mind that the filter he was running that comes as part of the tools installation is used for creating '_sm' textures. Then, when TexView2 saves it out it processes based on TexConvert.cfg and writes out a different result to the one you see after running the filter. Not a big deal, but can cause a little confusion I guess.

-Sy

Edited February 16, 2013 by Synide

[meshcarver 12]

Aye, cheers guys for all the advice.

TO let you know my spec workflow now:

for SMDI, I greyscale it then run the filter over it- job done.

for DTSMDI I greyscale it, then in red channel, 50% fill with white, leave the green channel and invert the blue channel.

It seems to work well.

[max power 21]

That's quite true... if he was using a '_smdi'. However, he's using a '_dtsmdi'. Multi shader .rvmats use 'dtsmdi' maps in the specular stages. They can take an 'smdi' as well and the Shader uses default values. And, although he doesn't mention it that's what he's using his spec maps for at the moment.

See Multimaterial on the biki for details.

Also, as for the color variation he mentions in his first post. One should keep in mind that the filter he was running that comes as part of the tools installation is used for creating '_sm' textures. Then, when TexView2 saves it out it processes based on TexConvert.cfg and writes out a different result to the one you see after running the filter. Not a big deal, but can cause a little confusion I guess.

-Sy

If he means dtsmdi maps then he needs to be more clear. There's nothing in this thread that says dtsmdi except what you just posted.

---------- Post added at 11:51 ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 ----------

Aye, cheers guys for all the advice.

TO let you know my spec workflow now:

for SMDI, I greyscale it then run the filter over it- job done.

for DTSMDI I greyscale it, then in red channel, 50% fill with white, leave the green channel and invert the blue channel.

It seems to work well.

In terms of your description of the smdi map, you realise that when you say 'I run a filter over it' that doesn't tell us much. I'm just saying that if your aim was to share your workflow with us, that's pretty vague.

I think the green and blue channels of the smdi and dtsmdi map contain the same information so there's no reason to treat them differently. You can run your 'filter' over the dtsmdi map and then flood fill the red channel 50% grey and the results should be the same.

[meshcarver 12]

Sorry, I mean the SpecularMapFinish filter from Texview2.

[max power 21]

Sorry, I mean the SpecularMapFinish filter from Texview2.

I just tried it out and it seems to make the specular maps darker and keeps the same values for the gloss map, and then does something odd for the red channel. If you are happy with the result, then use it, but I think you can get finer results by just highlighting areas of your maps that would be more or less glossy and defining areas of light and dark based on that. For instance, if you have a rifle with plastic furniture, you would probably want the areas of plastic to be brighter on the gloss map than the metal.

[meshcarver 12]

Ok max,

Could you please say what each channel does?

Ie, red= nothing

Green= spec

Blue= gloss etc?

Thatd be appreciated mate!

[max power 21]

I believe I have said it clearly many times. The amazing thing about the forums is that it's still there for you to read.

[meshcarver 12]

ok Max, I'll look it up...

found:

If you are using some filter to change the colour of a grey scale image, do you think you are properly creating a specular and gloss map on the green and blue channels?

So am I right in saying the green is SPECULAR alone, and the blue is GLOSS alone..?

So for an object with zero gloss, I could literally just use the green channel and also white out the red channel..?!

Edited February 17, 2013 by meanmachine1

[max power 21]

0 gloss is an edge case that this engine doesn't handle very well.

edit: If you're not going to want per pixel control of the gloss map, set it to white, then you can adjust the glossiness via the specular power slider.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Max Power