New video on 4way blends

Started by wallworm, December 29, 2016, 06:50:00 PM

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lauris47

Thanks. So of course it means that inside Unity, trough shader coding information from channel 10 (or if moved from channel 2) can be used for 4Way blending.

No, Maya does not maintain any textures from 3ds Max that uses that shader. Textures become just the default lambert color. I created replacement materials, just to have the base texture (the first found in .vmt). It doesn't look good but at least these models have some texture for now. Most likely 4Way blend will be required for my project, so better solution must be found.

lauris47

I was playing around with custom shader in Unity. You have mentioned that 4way blend channel is kept in channel 2 or 10 (depending). How do I use that information when coding?
If I look in uv editor UV channel where 4way blend information is kept, all I see is one dot - all uvs are in the same position, 0,0 in coordinates. UVs are 2D coordinates? Or is it 3D, 4D... but that is not shown since, UV editors don't need them?

Thank you.



Quote from: wallworm on July 26, 2018, 10:07:57 AM
Just a heads up. After more testing, I have discovered that the FBX does preserve the 4way blend channel. Unfortunately, it moves it from channel 10 to channel 2 (at least for a return trip to Max). So you can still render the blends in other DCC provided you have a shader for that in the DCC that will use the data as needed.

The DX shader used in Max is preserved in the FBX and comes back to Max fine.

The remaining question would be if Maya can use Max's FX files. If so, it may just be an issue of the path to the bitmaps not working in the FBX for how Maya expects them.

Finally, in terms of baking an entire level. Doing this would be catastrophic for almost any target application as mentioned in an earlier thread. The only sane solution is to replicate the 4way shader in the target DCC or game engine.

lauris47

I was able to replicate the shader at least partially. I got two textures blending, according how Valve team painted them in Unity. That information is stored in vertex paint (PVC paint vortex color) - didn't know that there is such thing.
I will work more to get more detailed result, bump maps and specular shine.

wallworm

Sorry I just got back from vacation.

In terms of Vertex Colors. They are technically just map channels. The vertex color channel is map channel 0. The channels WW uses are explained above. The map information is included in the FBX. You just have to have your shader use the map/color information in the channel it's coming through in the FBX--which looks to be map channel 2 instead of the vertex color channel.

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