TGEA material.cs Generator

#1 does this also work with interior?

#2 of course it does...
Its a material.cs generator it doesnt say "Hey this is for interiors so Ill skip this". It just makes a materials.cs file from all images in its current directory.

#3 Wow thanks for this tool. This is coming in handy already!!

#4 Glad to hear it :)

#5 This is a great resource! I'm using it for testing and it works great.

An idea for future development would be if a materials.cs file already exists, it checks if a material has already been defined and if not, create a definition for it. Otherwise, if it already exists it shouldn't overwrite it since the user might have made customizations on it. I know, not the easiest feature to implement but it would become much more usable.

Nick

#6 care to share your source with me ?

I would be happy to add a few things...email me if this interests you.
eb[at]fragstudios[dot]com

#7 yea sorry i keep meaning to re-write it in c++, will do over weekend

#8 No worries James. I am sure you have better things to do with your time besides translate code ;)

...a friend of mine and I started to write a small standalone app.
We are generating simple output right now...
// -------------------------------------
new Material([user_defined_prefix]+filename)
{
baseTex[0] = "filename";
bumpTex[0] = "filename+[user_defined_suffix]";
mapTo = "filename";
pixelSpecular[0] = true;
specular[0] = "1.0 1.0 1.0 0.1";
specularPower[0] = 32.0;
};
// -------------------------------------
We plan on utilizing all of TGEA's material functionality with a GUI that can append and edit the materials.cs files. We're planning a bit more as well but I don't want to get ahead of ourselves with words!

#9 Gd luk, whats wd be good is if u flew up to the building or wateva, right click it, select materials properties and then change it like that :D

#10 Sorry for the long delay on this...it turns out that this project came to a screeching halt when I/we realized how poor the documentation on this topic 'is' and even worse -> the capabilities of the material system is short of what the docs explained.
*Needless to say...I am disappointed.

So until I learn the full functionalities of their ill-explained-material system...this is on hold for the power-user functionalities. Even after that I still have to convince my coding-buddy that it is worth-while-project.
Perhaps a scripted GUI instead....we'll see.

Sincere apologies to anyone that was in hoping/waiting...

P.S.:
If anyone has made a material with multiple layers doing different animation functions...plz post here.
I would be amazed to hear how you achieved this without HLSL.
AsI currently find that all animation layers inherit the base animated layer function.

#11 Hey,

I have to admit the docs on TGEA arent really that good.

Im sure you could release a 0.1 version though, with basic functionality.
Or are you like me and dont like releasing till its at version 1?

#12 Yes, it was a dull job to create materials.cs manually. :/

But I suggest the right way to do that it let the exporter to generate material.cs file when it exports.

Anyway, thank you for your effort.

Good job. :-)

#13 My Gawd !
30 minutes ago I wrote my LAST materials.cs file in long-form ! It occurred to me to check if anyone out there felt the same as I and lo and behold Abydos did it !

Good job !

#14 thx :)

Btw I have a new version which creates each material from a template, i.e. you type in:

new Material(TEXNAME)
{
// place
}

It will replace TEXNAME with the name of the material its currently processing and it will copy everything else...

Anyway I should have it uploaded soon.

#15 Hi, if i want to affect transparency during game, ie by enabling and disabling the transparency in materials.cs how can i call the definition that it needs to use and switch between them, for example I currently have as follows;

new Material(player_norm)
{
mapTo = "player";
basetex[0] = "~/data/shapes/Alien/playerTrans";
translucent = false;
};

new Material(player_trans)
{
mapTo = "player";
basetex[0] = "~/data/shapes/Alien/playerTrans";

translucent = true;
};


Also if it can't be done this way, is there another way you could suggest?