szmotsu on 21/8/2014 at 16:25
Hey
I have a problem - i dont know how to set up ionshader in 3ds max 5.1 to get transparent material like bottle. Anyone know how to do this?
I will be very grateful for help
Judith on 21/8/2014 at 16:59
Um, there are several ways to do that, depending on what look you want to achieve. If you just need transparency, save a transparent .dds texture of your choice with DXT3 or DXT5 compression format, put it in ION Shader's Diffuse1 slot, and check Use Alpha box right above it. Click the checkered cube right above Ion Shader button to see if it looks right in the Perspective View.
Judith on 22/8/2014 at 07:27
Well, you won't get the refraction effect ;) But otherwise it should work. If you'll use it for glasses, bowls and other double-sided objects, you'll probably have some problems with the inside part, especially when within a radius of a light source. I think I had a workaround for this, but I'll have to check it manually later. If all else fails, you can always use opaque texture with cubemap, to give the glass that shiny look.
Judith on 22/8/2014 at 13:13
The problem with transparency and Use Alpha object is that it works best on "closed", one-sided objects, like bottles. This is my oversized whiskey glass, you get the idea:
(
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z95fc38opudojcf/Clipboard01.jpg)
I think I had the workaround for this, I'll think of something.
Judith on 22/8/2014 at 14:53
Ok, so you can offset this a bit, using both Alpha option and Cube Map Reflection. You can use env_noise_01.dds texture from game folder. Set the Reflection amount slider to a desired value and voila. Naturally, the ION Shader preview doesn't work as it should, so you'd have to make some tweaks and see how it looks in the game.
(
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lb05qteedjouss/Clipboard02.jpg)
Edit: This is how close I got to a glass:
[video]https://www.dropbox.com/s/fis3xhtro72e58y/Glass01.mp4?dl=1[/video]
The inside is still overlit, but I don't think there's much we can do about it.
szmotsu on 22/8/2014 at 21:40
thank for your help Judith. This make my life easier cause i dont need to spend much time for testing all this stuff :D
The broken preview in 3ds is really pain in ass. Anyone find a solution to fix this?
Judith on 23/8/2014 at 12:17
Well, it would be great to have ION Shader Material Creator as a separate application with GUI and proper preview. And possibly some model exporter with popular formats like .obj, .fbx, .ase and other converted to .tim. But I'm no programmer, I don't even know whether this is possible. Unfortunately Thief 3 renderer (Flesh) uses pixel shader model 1.1 and directx 8.1. They're buggy and probably quite painful to work with.
szmotsu on 23/8/2014 at 12:43
huh i remember how many time i spend to get my first custom model to work and look proper. Thank again for your help!
Linda on 24/10/2014 at 20:33
I don't know what you mean for 'broken preview' but you may want to check the Alpha testing box on the Material editor and set it to 128. This should be a standard between the semi-transparent materials.
