The material system
by Bloodknight · in Torque 3D Beginner · 08/25/2010 (11:25 am) · 3 replies
A minor problem that existed before I integrated sahara was the annoyance that i couldnt apply a material or set of materials to a single model, now i dont know whether this is a lack of knowledge on my part or a lack of features on torques part, so this post will double up as a question and feature request depending on the turn of events. Also i'm quite often quite awkward at explaining things so if you wouldnt midreading between the lines and then asking further questions if i dont make sense.
If there is a way of adding a particular set of materials to a particular model without reexporting the dts/collada model with new materials, could somebody please write a tutorial on that subject or point me towards one, that would be fantastic.
So heres what i want to do, picture the scene, i have an environment full of Konrads massive rocks and dexsofts medival houses, the problem is now i want a summer scene and a winter scene, i apply the accumulation and its all fantastic except for the fact i can only have one scene unless i re-export models and create a duplicate set of base materials.
If theres a simple solution to all this i cant find it and would be appreciative of any education you experts would like to pass on and please excuse my general ignorance (QI reference for the brits there) if in fact there is no easy way, then could torquepowered consider adding it or even somebody else please consider adding this functionality via a resource of even a paid for pack.
NB i have read some posts about skins, however much as i tried i couldnt half understand the concepts which is my fault, but also as i understand it this requires much more input at the start of the art pipeline, and many of my art assets dont even have any source files to tinker with making this impossible for some of my assets
If there is a way of adding a particular set of materials to a particular model without reexporting the dts/collada model with new materials, could somebody please write a tutorial on that subject or point me towards one, that would be fantastic.
So heres what i want to do, picture the scene, i have an environment full of Konrads massive rocks and dexsofts medival houses, the problem is now i want a summer scene and a winter scene, i apply the accumulation and its all fantastic except for the fact i can only have one scene unless i re-export models and create a duplicate set of base materials.
If theres a simple solution to all this i cant find it and would be appreciative of any education you experts would like to pass on and please excuse my general ignorance (QI reference for the brits there) if in fact there is no easy way, then could torquepowered consider adding it or even somebody else please consider adding this functionality via a resource of even a paid for pack.
NB i have read some posts about skins, however much as i tried i couldnt half understand the concepts which is my fault, but also as i understand it this requires much more input at the start of the art pipeline, and many of my art assets dont even have any source files to tinker with making this impossible for some of my assets
About the author
#2
08/25/2010 (11:21 pm)
I am a little confused, you want 1 level that is both autumn and winter? Could you not just create these levels as two seperate levels with two seperate material.cs files with the textures you want? 
#3
if you want to use duplicate objects in the same scene but with different materials, yes, you'll have to re-export.
if duplicate objects will always use the same textures but vary across different scenes, you can directly manipulate the attributes of the material to make global changes for all the objects.
theres some resources out there for swapping materials which you may want to check out.
08/28/2010 (11:07 pm)
Quote:
its all fantastic except for the fact i can only have one scene unless i re-export models and create a duplicate set of base materials.
if you want to use duplicate objects in the same scene but with different materials, yes, you'll have to re-export.
if duplicate objects will always use the same textures but vary across different scenes, you can directly manipulate the attributes of the material to make global changes for all the objects.
theres some resources out there for swapping materials which you may want to check out.
Torque Owner Giorgio Zanetti ( JoZ )
Corona Team
Maybe can be possible playing with the shape editor setting it to import the collada files with a material prefix, so that the material name became compatible with the skin system?
Let me know.
Giorgio.