Is there a way

to use different skins on one model?



lets say i got a ball and i want to have different variations of the same ball.



Now i know i need to create a .fpe file for evry skin



the issue i have is what if i want to use the same normal map for all those models and a different spec maps in some cases as well.



How would i go about this?







Textured is the field for the diffuse texture, is there one for normal map and specular map as well?



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Since it would be just dumb to have 4times the same texture/ normal map and it would be a waste of space as well.



@TGC & Lee

And if not then hell this needs to be changed as its just dumb to not be able to specify the other maps for the model

for now the normal and spec maps MUST be the same name in order for the shaders to work properly. The only way I see to do what you want is either separate textures for each version of the model or make atlas textures and uv map the appropriate parts to the proper location on the atlas. Not sure what kind of performance reloaded will give using atlas textures though.

This is really sad to hear and we cant let this go, we need some adjustments in this area.

Hello



I am no expert here but I have been playing around with different skins for the same model I was creating maps for different types of road IE one with double yellow lines, single white lines and so on, but if I did it the normal way I would have had a lot of maps.



What I did instead was create a larger dds file and put 3 road types in 1 dds file. I had to create 3 models that were essentially the same but each was pointing at a different area of the map for it's skin.



What I had now was three objects (that were the same) that were using the same dds files, but each had a different fpe and bitmap and when brought into FPSCR were 3 different road types

@ Taz



What you describe is exactly what an atlas texture is. All parts on one map but the different models are uv mapped to the appropriate area on the texture. And as I said I have no idea how they will perform in Reloaded. On simple models with lot

@Spotaru



Thanks for the info on the Atlas Texture. It is nice to no what I am doing so that if I read it from somewhere else I will know what they are talking about.



The models I am creating are quite simple ones and the reason I did it this way

Guys atlas textures are not ment for small entities.



We need a solution for skinfiles within the fpe file.



This cant stay this way, it limits the freedom and slows performance down.



The only realistic use for atlas textures if for buildings/ paths/ roads - bigger entities.

Sorry but WRONG! Atlas textures are extremely useful if used as Taz did. It avoids having to use way too many textures. For instance I have a tree model with 15 different sets of textures. That would mean 45 different textures. Now which do you think is better..... 45 textures or 3 atlas textures ?



@ J0linar

You are also kinda correct. They are not meant for small entitys but as I said, In Taz's case it was one of if not THE best solution. It should also work for the different variations of the same ball model in your case.



As for an FPE solution...... not gonna happen unless some shader guru rewrites the entity shader to accept different texture names.I am not entirely sure as I am no programmer, how the shader knows which texture to use in the first place. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even look at the FPE. It probably gets the texture name from the model name itself and just looks for the _D _N and _S to match. If the shader cannot find the textures you will only get a totally black model to appear in Reloaded. And if I remember correctly, Classic FPSC required you to use the same name on the textures also.

Mip Maps are not used in Reloaded.if you look at an Atlas everything is packed right up against each other no space is wasted.

A single Atlas texture takes up the same memory as a lot of smaller textures the memory saving is in swapping out a single Atlas instead of the memory buffer swapping out a bunch of smaller ones.

If you have a lot of entity's always in view such as a host of trees, foliage and billboards, which don't require full detail it makes sense to use it. If you have a town in the distance I would use an Atlas till closer then swap out for full textures.

The only reason you don't see these much in FPSC is because models are created by a lot of different people, in a studio environment they are very common.

aye no need to jump the gun, my fault that i forgot to mention trees and such

but if we are honest we need a way to define the map texture.



Now the .fpe file is used to tell the engine what diffuse texture to render, along with the diffuse it takes the naming of the diffuse and loads up the _N, _S maps as well if they are present.



So no it is not a question of shaders, it is a question of giving users the abbility to define not just the diffuse texture.



@rolfy

reloaded is not using mip maps?

Mip Maps are exported at the user end, not created by the engine, I don't see any info from Lee and Co on their use in Reloaded, so I am assuming they aren't. It appears that textures are not reduced along with LOD as far as I can see, if they are I wouldn't exactly call it mip mapping simply texture reduction and as I say I don't see it.



When you reduce shader quality via the selection fields it seems to be removing properties such as normals etc not doing anything to the actual texture.

ic well guess we should ask then



Might take a look at the shaders to see if that is really defined there,

if there is something named textured then it should be just a question of

expanding this to read normal and specular maps.



Will report if i find something.



Edit:

Seems its hardcoded, so it is just up to Lee

to expand this.

You could try naming the normal and specs in the actual shader, place the shader .fx in same folder as entity, should work fine unless Reloaded is hard coded to only use effectbank, but this will mean using different named shader for each object. I dont know if using different named but same shader, calling different textures, would have any impact on performance, try and see



Normally a shader calls:

string Name = "N.tga";



This is why it looks for a matching spec or normal texture in the shader.



Change to full path and texture name.

string Name = "yourtexture_N.tga";



FPSC will use .dds by default if no .tga is present.

Well thats true but it is not defined this way in the shaders, at least i cant see that one could just do this.



i will digg deeper and see if i there is a way to accomplish this without the powers of b

Look for



/***************TEXTURES AND SAMPLERS***************************************************/

<

string Name = "D.tga";

string type = "2D";

>;



texture NormalMap : DiffuseMap

<

string Name = "N.tga";

string type = "2D";

>;



texture SpecularMap : DiffuseMap

<

string Name = "S.tga";

string type = "2D";

>;



in the shader.



The string is a wildcard changing this to an actual name should force the shader to use a specific texture.



Not ideal I know and I agree it would be nice to have actual materials in Reloaded to build from.

Thanks for the info rolfy. A true Atlas texture is tightly packed with no wasted space. But for lack of a name to call it, I also call "any" texture that is mapped for multiple variations of the model an atlas texture. It may not be a correct use of the term Atlas texture but that is what I call it.

Also as I have stated in other posts, my 3D knowledge is a few years out of date and I am trying my best to catch up. So if anyone finds fault with anything I say or the way I explain things please point it out. I am only trying to help and I don't want to be spreading false info.

Not all Atlas are tightly packed but by their nature they tend to be so



The main confusion I have seen is where simply using the same texture for many objects is referred to as an Atlas. We are none of us knowledgeable in everything and every little helps even if only to spark debate, nothing wrong with that, everyone gains in the end.



It really doesn't matter what you call it so long as it works