Spec map channel of Blended Grass Infields shader locked as well?

Discussion in 'Track Modding' started by ethone, Mar 6, 2012.

  1. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    It seems I have run into a different shader which has its mapping channel and tiling locked.

    On the Blended Grass Infields shader I can't seem to increase the tiling of the specular stage. I am using the ISI grass_specular.dds atm and was experimenting with a largely mapped diffuse stage (50mx50m planar mapped). To compensate I wanted to use higher tiling on the spec map channel. Here's the result:
    View attachment 1513

    As you can see, the grass blades are rather long, some as long as the car. With a 1mx1m mapping and a 10*10 tiling that obviously means the mapping is ignored. I presume the specular stage is locked into map channel 1, like the diffuse channel. Here's my material settings/uvw map:
    View attachment 1514
     
  2. Luc Van Camp

    Luc Van Camp Track Team Staff Member

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    Odd. The ISI tracks use a different channel for the grass detail maps (so both spec and mult).
    When you compare it with the piece of grass in the Joesville section, are there any major differences in mapping channels?
     
  3. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    Same mapping channels as the piece of grass in the Joesville section. That's the second thing I tried actually, using the same mapping channels as Joesville.
    I'm using the exact same settings as the Joesville example except for the tiling (which doesn't seem to be doing anything) and trying a smaller planar UVW map on the mapping channels, which again didn't seem to be doing anything either.
     
  4. Luc Van Camp

    Luc Van Camp Track Team Staff Member

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    Silly question, I know: is another GMT interfering with the updated material changes?
     
  5. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    Nope there aren't. They're the first gmts to be loaded.
    Also, that wouldn't explain why I couldn't increase the tiling by using a smaller planar UVW map. ;)
     
  6. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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    Could it be you have 2 dif UVW Mappings open?
     
  7. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    The other one in the screenshot is for a different map channel.
     
  8. Michael Juliano

    Michael Juliano Track Team

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    I'm not quite sure why this isn't working. But, I know that:

    Diffuse 1 = map channel 1
    Diffuse 2 = map channel 2
    spec and mult stages = map channel 3
    normal = map channel 2
     
  9. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    Yes, that is how I have my material set up as well. As I said, I looked at the Joesville section and replicated the channel settings from there before trying to increase the tiling factor in the material or applied the UVW planar map.
     
  10. Luc Van Camp

    Luc Van Camp Track Team Staff Member

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    Try creating a temporary test Plane object :( ?
     
  11. Jka

    Jka Member Staff Member

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    ethone, I'm struggling very same problem myself. I'll continue troubleshooting this later tonight...

    Cheers!
     
  12. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    Same thing happens as before. When I map the diffuse map at 50m*50m on Map Channel 1 instead of say 10m*10m, the specular map increases as well. When I slap a UVW Map 1m*1m on it, it changes nothing. It's the same cursed thing I had with the bump map of the road shader, the mapping seems fixed to something it shouldn't be fixed to.
     
  13. Luc Van Camp

    Luc Van Camp Track Team Staff Member

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    The difference between this and the road bump is that this time it's rather unexpected behaviour :) . I'll reserve some time after midnight to test this myself.
     
  14. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    From where I'm standing it's pretty much the same, both times I wanted to implement details with a highly tiled texture stage - and it didn't work. ;)
     
  15. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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    I just mapped a new object going from 100x100 to .1x.1 and it changed in game. Mapped it UVW Map then adjusted with xform and both worked for me at least. I know this dont help but at least it does work for some.
     
  16. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    Hold the horses Luc, I found the error of my ways.

    Two things made this happen:
    - I mistakenly had the mult stage on channel 1 instead of 3.
    - the specular stage apparently does not use its own settings but that of the mult stage.

    So if the mult stage isn't set up properly the spec stage is screwed as well.
    Different tiling of the two is also impossible with this setup.
     
  17. Jka

    Jka Member Staff Member

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    Yep, my bad as well in my scene. I've setup mapping channel incorrectly in Blended Grass Infields. Sometimes I'm so blind with my mistakes... I've checked these mapping channels many times without noticing this..:eek:

    Now back to troubleshoot terrain blending problem...

    Cheers!
     
  18. ethone

    ethone Registered

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    I'd like to follow up:
    Is this considered a bug/an incomplete feature or will it stay as it is?

    It limits me in the use of the mult stage, which I had planned to use for adding different details much larger than the mapping size of the specular stage. I'd hate to have to abandon the blended terrain feature of the shader just to be able to use the mult stage properly with the more standard shaders.
     
  19. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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    I went in and set spec to chan 4 and mapped each chan. The multi chan only maps to what the spec is doing. I used the Joes max file to create the gmt. Even with each tex being on sep channels it acted like my 3yr old son and didnt do what it was told.
     

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