.png files/Photoshop/texture art questions...
by Andrew "CENOBITE" Paul · in Technical Issues · 03/10/2005 (1:15 am) · 7 replies
Hey there, Cenobite here from StarSiege:2845. I did a search about this in the forums but couldn't find relavant info. Maybe someone can help (and sorry if this is redundant).
Since I am doing textures for the game, I had some questions. I recall Tribes 2 required a special .png file to replace the default .png one in Photoshop. Is this still required?
The alpha channel? I recall it was used for shiny surfaces in T2... what about now? And what is the difference between the TGE and TSE usage of it?
Yes, these might sound like old questions for some of you, but if any can point me the way (link) to all the info about texturing, shaders, bumpmap/normal map/specular/luminosity...etc (basically the texturing bible) for both the TGE and the TSE, I would be eternally greatful (and hopefully not have to come in here so often sounding like a totall 'noob').
Since I am doing textures for the game, I had some questions. I recall Tribes 2 required a special .png file to replace the default .png one in Photoshop. Is this still required?
The alpha channel? I recall it was used for shiny surfaces in T2... what about now? And what is the difference between the TGE and TSE usage of it?
Yes, these might sound like old questions for some of you, but if any can point me the way (link) to all the info about texturing, shaders, bumpmap/normal map/specular/luminosity...etc (basically the texturing bible) for both the TGE and the TSE, I would be eternally greatful (and hopefully not have to come in here so often sounding like a totall 'noob').
#2
03/11/2005 (5:23 am)
Andrew: The alpha channel can be used for an environment map (I assume this si what you mean by shiny) The more transparent the more the emap will be visible. The details of hwo to set this up will be in the docs for your chosen exporter.
#3
anyone else with some helpful links, etc... please feel free to post.
03/14/2005 (2:30 am)
Thanks. Good to know about the default png file.anyone else with some helpful links, etc... please feel free to post.
#4
04/21/2005 (2:46 pm)
Man , I wish I knew . I've been trying to get emaps working on dts shapes forever. i use maya5 , and the documentation is good but somewhat limited in that area.
#5
www.fnordware.com/superpng/
It saves smaller files which is a bonus especially if you have lots and lots of textures.
04/21/2005 (3:33 pm)
I don't think a special type of png is required, I can rememeber some guy telling me ages ago theres something up with the way photoshop saves png's, but i've never come across any problems. I use a free tool called superPng though anyway.www.fnordware.com/superpng/
It saves smaller files which is a bonus especially if you have lots and lots of textures.
#6
04/26/2005 (6:28 am)
I don't know what kind of bad extamacy this fnord dude has been smoking but that utility makes my png files twice as big as photoshop7 'save for web' on average.
#7
05/02/2005 (5:05 pm)
I found the best way to get optimized PNG's is to view it in 3dsmax and save it from there. Even the PNG optimizers come in at 1-2k more than 3dsmax for some reason.
Torque Owner Nick Zafiris
There is no built-in transparency support right now but there are resources that will help you add it: 1, 2.
Also, check out these couple of links for TSE texturing: 1,
2.
Hope others can provide you with more links.
Nick