Profile of F.X.

Here’s what I know based on a lot of great information discovered during the first “War Paint” competition:

The first thing to note is that for memory efficiency the burn settings create fewer output maps than there are possible inputs. For example, there is a diffuse map which is RGB and an alpha map which is also saved as an RGB tga file. The bake setting for the diffuse output takes the R, G and B from the diffuse input, and a single channel from the alpha map which then goes into the A channel of the output. Likewise it takes the R & G channels from the normal map, the R channel from the spec map, and the B channel from the gloss map, and outputs a 4-channel _nrm file which the game engine uses for all those maps. So if you are editing just the spec map, for example, you are still going to need to feed it a _nrm and a _gls input (even if you don’t change them from the default) in order to have the results be correct.

Here is a screengrab of the settings that work:





Note that the checkbox labeled “compress textures” needs to be OFF.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Already started my work on this, you guys may find work-in-progress threads here

That "Calamity Ravens" WIP looks very cool. Good luck!

Great job! Thanks a lot.

Does anyone know if those war paint winner skins somehow also change the model? I just wonder why on the german Three-Colour Summer Camouflage skin the PzIV has those mesh Schürzen while on the Winter Frost skin he has solid Schürzen and why the Scout car SdkfZ has a radio antenna ring and other little extras that the summer skin doesn't have.

Skins cannot really change the geometry, but they can change transparency. The basic texture maps that are painted include diffuse color, specularity, gloss, bump, and alpha. I expect that 99% of skins don't change the bump and alpha maps, but by carefully painting these you can create the effect of an open mesh like the ones on the side skirts pictured above. Removing a specific piece of geometry by painting the map to make it transparent is pretty easy.

Well, I don't hear many movies being postponed, so there is that

The medical industry is a bit overdue with the cure for cancer, so I don't think they qualify.

Movies do get delayed, but usually long before the general public is paying attention. Google "movie release date pushed" to see a few current ones. I keep a teaser poster for "Titanic" on my wall which says "SUMMER" in big bold letters (it was released theatrically in December) as a reminder that things do not always go as planned, but even so they can still turn out well.

Most of the time, you will only be painting the DIFFUSE (aka the *_dif.tga file). That is basically the color.

SPECULAR and GLOSS affect how shiny the surface will look. NORMAL allows you to change the surface from appearing flat and is used to add little details like rivets, bumps, scratches, etc without adding more geometry. If you tweak SPECULAR, GLOSS, and/or NORMAL, you actually have to output all three for the "burn" to work (and by the way, the default burn settings are incorrect), so leave them for more advanced use.

ALPHA is transparency, and the HELPER layer is only there to assist you in lining up details to the polygonal faces.

If you only write out and process the diffuse tga, the game uses the default specular/gloss/normal/alpha layers so your vehicles still get all the correct details without taking up additional memory for a unique version.