Map Re-use quesiton

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Ethangar
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Joined: 18 Jul 2009, 04:16

Map Re-use quesiton

Post by Ethangar » 07 May 2011, 17:23

Coming from a Lightwave background, I have a load of lightwave models that I would like to bring over to SI. Getting them into SI so far hasn't been a problem and putting the maps that get lost back on hasn't either. Where I'm hitting a head scratcher is with the diffusion maps. Diffuse in SI is where the colour lives. In lightwave there is a colour channel and a diffuse channel. The diffuse is a grey scale image that shows how much light/colour comes off of a particular spot on the texture map. I use it a lot to show dirtier areas of a map.

So the question is, since this doesn't exist in SI what would be the best way to utilize them? Add them in photoshop, Use a mixer before the diffuse input to merge them? If its a mixer what would be the likely settings for it? I'm thinking something like multiply?

Just curious how you would go about it.

Thanks in Advance.

P.S. While I'm thinking about it... Over the years I got used to saving all my greyscale images as indexed .png's. In lightwave this saves a TON of memory. Does this hold with SI? I've noticed that 3Delight doesn't like .png at all so curious what everyone is using.

Again... thanks.

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Hirazi Blue
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Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 12:15

Re: Map Re-use quesiton

Post by Hirazi Blue » 07 May 2011, 17:48

This older thread over at the XSIBase seems to explore almost the same LW related question... :-\
Which leaves the PNG question still unanswered...
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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Ethangar
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Joined: 18 Jul 2009, 04:16

Re: Map Re-use quesiton

Post by Ethangar » 07 May 2011, 18:19

Thanks HB. That was exactly what I was looking for. I only missed the searching XSI Base part :D

Jesse
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Joined: 18 Jun 2009, 21:51

Re: Map Re-use quesiton

Post by Jesse » 07 May 2011, 22:09

Theres two ways to deal with that sort of diffuse in soft. the first is to use a shader that actually has this input. The mia material/ architectural material has this input. It's called diffuse weight. The other is to either layer the dirt image on in photoshop or with a mix 2 or 8 color node. Since essentially all you are doing with the diffuse map is modifying the color value of the original image anyway

*edit* to be more specific, the diffuse map (in the sense you are referring to it as) is a multiplier. So in Photoshop or with the mix 8 node just as in the mia material use the multiply blend mode to get the expected results.

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