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Linking on from the end of the Level 1 Car Tutorial. This mini tutorial will cover the recommended material/shader types to use on your cars in Carmageddon Max Damage.
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Recommended Materials Overview
For best results, you can copy the contents of the Material (MT2) files from one of the official cars, and then replace/edit the texture names to match your own. You will need an XML editor to edit these files, notepad will not cut it.
Recommended Material Types:
- Car Paint Material (Exterior Bodywork) – “car_shader_double_sided_base”
- Exterior trim or Interior Materials – “car_shader_base”
- Windows & Lights Materials – “car_shader_glass”
- Illuminated Light Materials – “glow_simple_norm_spec_env_base_a”
- Wheel (Rim) Material – “simple_norm_spec_env_base”
- Tire Material – “simple_norm_base”
- Simple Materials with no specularity or normal map – “simple_base” “car_shader_base”
Materials Breakdown
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1] Car Paint Material (Exterior Bodywork)
“car_shader_double_sided_base”
“car_shader_double_sided_base” is the only material in the game, which will have blood splatters enabled. On the official cars this is just used on a single material, for which the texture contains: paintwork, all exterior trim (chrome, plastic, rubber), weapons, underbody, engine bay surround, grille, and sometimes the interior.
The material takes in 9 textures (comments for each texture argument are on line below, in Turquoise):
- <Texture Alias=”Side1_DiffuseColour2? FileName=”mt_body_diffuse”/>
// Regular Texture colour - <Texture Alias=”Side1_Normal_Map2? FileName=”mt_body_normal”/>
// Adds ‘3d effect’ details, useful for badges, crumples, panel lines, bolts & weld seams - <Texture Alias=”Side1_Spec_Map2? FileName=”mt_body_specular”/>
// Determines specularity/reflectivity, diffuse of this texture is reflection colour, alpha channel determines intensity - <Texture Alias=”Side1_DiffuseColour1? FileName=”mt_body_damaged_diffuse”/>
// Damaged Texture colour (usually has crumples &/or scratches overlayed) - <Texture Alias=”Side1_Normal_Map1? FileName=”mt_body_damaged_normal”/>
// Adds ‘3d effect’ details, used to add effect of crumples in bodywork - <Texture Alias=”Side1_Spec_Map1? FileName=”mt_body_damaged_specular”/>
// Determines specularity/reflectivity, diffuse of this texture is reflection colour, alpha channel determines intensity, usually diffuse & alpha channel are brightened considerably where scratches are on the main damage texture - <Texture Alias=”Side2_DiffuseColour” FileName=”mt_body_diffuse”/>
// Backfacing diffuse texture, if you don’t have one, then just reference regular texture here - <Texture Alias=”Side2_Normal_Map” FileName=”mt_body_normal”/>
// Adds ‘3d effect’ details, useful for bulkheads, crumples, panel lines, bolts & weld seams, if you don’t have one, then just reference regular normal map here - <Texture Alias=”Side2_Spec_Map” FileName=”mt_body_specular”/>
// Determines specularity/reflectivity, diffuse of this texture is reflection colour, alpha channel determines intensity. If you don’t have one, then just reference regular specular map here
Regular Body Textures
“Side1_DiffuseColour2"
”Side1_Normal_Map2"
”Side1_SpecMap2" (shown without transparency)
”Side1_SpecMap2" (transparency/alpha channel)
Damage Body Textures
“Side1_DiffuseColour1"
”Side1_Normal_Map1"
”Side1_SpecMap1" (shown without transparency)
”Side1_SpecMap1" (transparency/alpha channel)
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2] Exterior trim or Interior Materials
“car_shader_base”
“simple_norm_spec_env_base” is used for almost all non-paint materials on the official cars. It takes in 3 textures.
- <Texture Alias=”DiffuseColour” FileName=”cr_trim_diffuse”/>
// Base Texture colour - <Texture Alias=”Normal_Map” FileName=”256_flat_normal”/>
// Adds ‘3d effect’ details, useful for badges, crumples, panel lines, bolts & weld seams - <Texture Alias=”Spec_Map” FileName=”cr_trim_specular_2?/>
// Determines specularity/reflectivity, diffuse of this texture is reflection colour, alpha channel determines intensity
3] Windows & Lights Materials
“car_shader_glass”
“simple_norm_spec_env_base_A” is almost identical to “simple_norm_spec_env_base”, in that it takes in the same number of textures, but the alpha channel (transparency) of the diffuse texture will be used to determine the opacity of the material. This is ideal for windows & lights.
Additionally, you can set this material as being two-sided.
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4] Illuminated Light Materials
“glow_simple_norm_spec_env_base_a”
Previously "Simple_additive_base" was used
“glow_simple_norm_spec_env_base_a” takes in a diffuse texture (with alpha channel), normal map & specular map and is used for illuminated lights. There are multiplier (Float) values that can be increased or decreased if your lights are appearing too bright or too dark in-game.
Note: All of the official cars reference the same normal map ("normal_n") & specular map ("spec_s")
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5] Wheel (Rim) Material
“simple_norm_spec_env_base”
“simple_norm_spec_env_base” is very similar to "Car_Shader_Base", in that it takes in the same set of maps (Diffuse, Normal & Specular)
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6] Tire Material
“simple_norm_base”
“simple_norm_base” works the same as “simple_norm_spec_env_base”, but it seems that the specular map is not used in-game. If you have not modelled backfacing on your tires (like me), then you will need to set this material as being 2 sided with the following command placed on the line below the material type.
Code: Select all
<DoubleSided Value="TRUE"/>
7] Simple Materials with no specularity or normal map
“car_shader_base”
The default material created by the Maxscript (Simple_Base) is the simplest material available in-game. It is no longer ideal to use "Simple_Base" for any vehicle materials, as any material on a vehicle referencing 'Simple_Base', will be made invisible when the vehicle is split. You can use 'Car_Shader_Base' in its place with "normal_n" as the normal map, and "spec_s" as the specular map. Both "normal_n" & "spec_s" are standard non_VT textures in CMD.
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