please add descriptions of what shaders you use for what purpose. I will edit as it fills. Blended Grass Infields Blended Grass Infields Dirt Track Blended Grass Infields Dirt Track v2 Bump Cube Add Alpha Reflect T1 Bump Cube Add Alpha Reflect T1 T2 Bump Cube Add Color Reflect T1 T2 Bump Cube Add Grayscale Reflect T1 T2 Bump Cube Specular Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 Bump Cube Specular Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 lerp T2 Vertex - uses: cars main body Bump Cube Specular Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 Bump Cube Specular Map Add Specular Reflect T1 Bump Cube Specular Map T1 Bump Cube T1 Bump Map Specular T1 Bump Map T1 Bump Map T1 add T2 Bump Map T1 lerp T2 Vertex Alpha Bump Map T1 mul T2 Bump Reflection Specular Map T1 Mat Alpha Vertex Alpha Bump Specular Map lerp T1 Bump Specular Map TO Lerp T1 Vertex Alpha Bump Specular Map TO Mul T1 Mat Alpha Vertex Alpha Bump Specular Map T1 Bump Specular Map T1 Alpha Test Bump Specular Map T1 Billboard Normal Bump Specular Map T1 Billboard Normal Alpha Test Bump Specular Map T1 lerp T2 add T3 Vertex Alpha Mask T1 Bump Specular Map T1 Stamp Normal Bump Specular Map T1 Stamp Vertex Bump Specular Map T1 Stamp Vertex Alpha Test Bumpy Clouds Cube Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 Cube Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 T2 Cube Map Add Color Reflect T1 T2 Cube Map Add Grayscale Reflect T1 T2 Cube Map Add T1 Cube Map lerp Alpha Reflect T1 Cube Map Specular Add T1 Cube Map Specular Map Add Grayscale Reflect TO Cube Map Specular Map Alpha Swap Specmap TO Cube Map Specular Map T1 Cube Map Specular Map T1 add T2 Cube Map Specular T1 Cube Map Specular T1 add T2 Cube Map Specular T1 mul T2 Cube Map T1 Cube Map T1 add T2 Cube Map T1 Mul T2 Default Deformable Tire Depth Cue No Texture Dirt Road Shader Two Diffuse Maps Gravel Traps Heat Effect High Luminance Sun - good for rear/brake/headlight/exhaust Light Glare - uses: head/brake lights, Backfire and Disk Glow No Lighting Cube Map No Lighting Projected Map No Lighting Tex1 Non-Directional Tex1 Road Shader Two Diffuse Maps Specular Map T1 - rough, but shiny or reflecting surfaces. Specular Map T1 add T2 Specular Map T1 add T2 add T3 Specular Map T1 add T2 mul T3 Specular Map T1 Fresnel Alpha Specular Map T1 lerp T2 add T3 Vertex Alpha Specular Map T1 lerp T2 add T3 Vertex Alpha Mask T1 Specular Map T1 lerp T2 add T3 Vertex Alpha Mask T1T2 Specular Map T1 lerp T2 mul T3 Vertex Alpha Mask T1 Specular Map T1 lerp T2 mul T3 Vertex Alpha Mask T1T2 Specular Map T1 lerp T2 Vertex ALpha Specular Map T1 mul T2 Specular Map T1 mul T2 add T3 Specular Map T1 mul T2 mul T3 Specular Map T1 mul T2 Stamp Vertex Specular Map T1 mul T2 Stamp Vertex Alpha Test Specular T1 - Shiny reflective hard surface. Specular T1 add T2 Specular T1 add T2 add T3 Specular T1 add T2 mul T3 Specular T1 mul T2 Specular T1 mul T2 add T3 Specular T1 mul T2 mul T3 T1 T1 add T2 T1 add T2 add T3 T1 add T2 add T3 add T4 T1 add T2 add T3 mul T4 T1 add T2 mul T3 T1 add T2 mul T3 add T4 T1 add T2 mul T3 mul T4 T1 alpha Test T1 Lerp T2 T1 Lerp T2 add T3 Vertex Alpha T1 lerp T2 mul T3 add T4 Vertex Alpha T1 Lerp T2 mul T3 Vertex Alpha T1 Lerp T2 Vertex ALpha T1 Mul T2 T1 Mul T2 add T3 T1 mul T2 add T3 add T4 T1 mul T2 add T3 mul T4 T1 mul T2 mul T3 add T4 T1 mul T2 mul T3 mul T4 T1 No Shadows T1 No Shadows Stamp Vertex T1 Stamp Vertex T1 Stamp Vertex Alpha Test Water Wet Windshield Windshield Inside Windshield Outside
ok, I use: Light Glare for head/breaklights, Backfire and Diskglow Bump Cube Specular Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 lerp T2 Vertex for carbody
Brilliant idea Kristoff! The first time I opened the gMotor Material and found that list I thought "WTF?" It will results in a pretty good documentation. Would be cool if some ISIs members could help to fill it.
How about the Deformable Tire for the new rubber bodied cars? Yes, I think of crazy stuff like that. Hey, at least you wouldn't have to worry about bent sheet metal anymore. Of course it could bring bouncing off other cars or the wall to a whole new level-- especially the Safer barrier walls. Anyway, you know what would be really handy? A sample GMT for every shader type, along with the 3DSMax settings for them...
I'm really thankful this got started - is there any more info that can be added at this point? I'm not working on cars right now, but more shader info would definitely help with the track i'm working on. In fact, definitions for the working shaders could probably help all modding efforts, across the board.
I'm working on a similar racing game at the moment and shader tweaking is an ongoing thing. There are shader updates every couple of weeks that we need to sync with our tools - does ISI operate in a similar fashion or are the shaders considered final already?
actually I'm fairly certain that they are still changing. However as far as I know no one ever took much interest in this thread. So I'm not too sure.
Yea, if there's a "makes everything look freakin' awesome and works flawlessly" shader out there that no one's telling me about, i'm going to be seriously bummed. Do you kind folks at ISI have any sweet sweet info you can share with us concerning the state of shaders? Which ones to use for what? Best practice settings to use them with? Anything like that would be incredibly helpful. Thanks!
High Luminance Sun is actually much better for rear/brake/headlight/exhaust, as it is NOT dimmed as other shaders/materials using 'emissive' are at night when using HDR. However textures must be corrected (darkened), both diffuse and alpha. Ohh, and light bulbs, glows.
use which ever shader you need to whichever case... if you have an object that you only want to have diffuse and specular map on it, use shader that only has diffuse and specular map in it. (Specular Map T1) if you want the same object to also have bump(normal) map, use a shader that uses diffuse, specular and normal map (Bump Specular Map T1) Its all common sence, except of some specialities like No lighting with is for mirrors (cuz if you dont, the mirrors polygon light gets multiplied with the light in the mirrors reflection resulting in absurd overexporsure) But for majority of stuff you will just need common sence There is no way how to tell what is the best shader for body or lights because it just depends on your art style and what you needs to use. As i said there are some special shaders that you do need to know about (heat effect etc) but your list already doesnt make any sence. Rule of thumb, if you are using a shader in which you are filling in some slots with just and empty 64X64 black square, odds are you are doing it wrong. Many of those shaders are also outdated and no longer in use, kept in the list only to maintain compatibility with the old stuff...(windshiled stuff,...)
Car paint shader is : Bump Cube Specular Map Add Alpha Reflect T1 lerp T2 Vertex Alpha T1: is your car paint job T2: is damage layer. I think the intention was to give vertex aplha to the surface that hits the wall. Like the roal road becomes visible... So the damage layer becomes visible. But it's unused... So a Bump Cube Specular Map T1 would do the same job. View attachment 19865
Bump Cube Specular Map T1 Add Alpha Reflect T1 you want to control your reflections using albedo maps alpha channel If your body mesh is detailed enough so there is no need for a bump map, Specular Map T1 Add Alpha Reflect T1 would be a better choice. It depends on the geometry, if your model includes individual body panels or if you need them on your textures instead ISI usualy does their body panels on texture, so they do need a normal map for body, in my opinion, in this day of age, body panels should be modelled.. Confusing why did they use the "Car paint with damage" shader... only two explanations come to mind. a - They ve had this model for a long time back in a day when this shader was not obsolete b - They plan on reintroducing damaged textures blending using vertex alpha, an odd way to do it considering they r2 uses a rigid primitve mesh as a collision mesh, dont know how would a bodywork get its vertex alpha affected when its not the bodywork that actually collides unless they are using manually made vertex alpha for damage texture blending, but again that doestn make too much sence to me
The car paint (with damage) shader is new and was applied to their most recent car. What does that tell you?
