AC Modding Questions Thread

[|Viper|]

Unsuccessfully trying to make texture transition between grass and stone wall

How it looks with ksMultylayer_fresnel_nm shader:

With ksMultylayer_objsp. better, but what's wrong with overlay? contrast gone completely..

Texture mask:

Can be ksMultylayer_objsp shader use for that? And how to increase contrast?

 

[Stereo]

Easiest way would be to have both materials using the ksMultilayer and make sure the magicmult value is the same and the colour of both mask textures is the same at the edge. It uses the magicmult to decide how to mix diffuse with the details so lighting is not really like other shaders.

Hard to tell from the size of the mask but you might need to black out the parts of the blue channel where you don't want stone to show up, for multilayer with 2 detail textures you just want one channel to be the inverse of the other.

 

[Two]

Anyone have any idea why I might be having this dark/bright road.

These bits of road (dark/bright) are 2 separate objects but both have the same materials/shader settings. Being right beside each other, I wonder why there are such different rendering results in the road pieces.

 

[marcocale]

.....
but you have to remove the nvidia tools from photoshop in order to use it, and doing so i lost the normal maps modifier too... probably can mess with the files to keep both

Yes, simple deleting ONLY the NVIDIA .8bi file filter inside Plug-Ins and regularly installing all "Intel Texture Work plugin" files seems to do the "trick"

EDIT: just tried to NOT deleting NVIDIA file format plugins .8bi and it seems to me everything is working, moreover giving me the ability to use both File Format plugin on my choice....

 

[Ben O'Bro]

Anyone have any idea why I might be having this dark/bright road.

These bits of road (dark/bright) are 2 separate objects but both have the same materials/shader settings. Being right beside each other, I wonder why there are such different rendering results in the road pieces.

Normal or smoothing group issues?

Yes, simple deleting ONLY the NVIDIA .8bi file filter inside Plug-Ins and regularly installing all "Intel Texture Work plugin" files seems to do the "trick"

EDIT: just tried to NOT deleting NVIDIA file format plugins .8bi and it seems to me everything is working, moreover giving me the ability to use both File Format plugin on my choice....

I couldn't manage to have both 8bi working, i only had one DDS format in the 'save as' list, and it was the nvidia one. Moreover, intel plugin gave me troubles, saving in other than DXT1 made "corrupted" DDS and crashed kseditor... so i reverted to nvidia :/ (i will try GIMP)

 

[NightEye87]

How it looks with ksMultylayer_fresnel_nm shader:

What Stereo said.
The ksMultilayer_fresnel_nm uses a top-down projection for detail textures rather than using UV information. For anything vertical this is not the right shader.

 

[|Viper|]

Hard to tell from the size of the mask but you might need to black out the parts of the blue channel where you don't want stone to show up

It was helful for me, thanks.
Did third material with ksMultylayer_objsp, paint blue channel mask in black color, then copy and inverse it.

 

[Ben O'Bro]

It's a thought and a question in the same time. Or just my digestive break from work and some ideas i had in mind but can't try until this weekend, so i share them here instead.

I'm going to try make the LHD alternative of the Caterham. I will try and keep the same maps and data, sounds etc. as much as possible to save the hassle. Only the cams & driver export will change. Probably few symmetric parts. Anyway.

Question is, can i save some disk space and re-use the same sound somehow, instead of copying the SFX twice (3 times actually with the older version!)
The maps are all inside the kn5 so no magic trick here.
Skins can't use shortcut either i imagine
But the sound, using references or something inside the GUIDs.txt ?
I checked the Countach has two folders just for a spoiler on/off :/ not well optimized. Twice the same fx, twice the skins...

Second thought, linked to the Countach story.
If i want to have a skin without the front plate for example, can i have an empty dds of 1x1 pixel on the skin folder and that would be enough to hide the mesh ? (assuming the AO from the part behind isn't darken)
Extrapolation of this idea, for example i have a car with two (or more) different rear spoilers. Could a skin, with correct empty maps and diffuse maps, show either one spoiler or the other (or no spoiler at all).

Extrapolation #2
Damaged texture being empty/transparent dds would show the engine below ?

And a bonus image as a tax.

 

[marcocale]

.....
.....
Second thought, linked to the Countach story.
If i want to have a skin without the front plate for example, can i have an empty dds of 1x1 pixel on the skin folder and that would be enough to hide the mesh ? (assuming the AO from the part behind isn't darken)
Extrapolation of this idea, for example i have a car with two (or more) different rear spoilers. Could a skin, with correct empty maps and diffuse maps, show either one spoiler or the other (or no spoiler at all).

No clue on your first thought, but some idea on the second.
If I correctly understood, the possibility to have or not plates controlled only via texture is a great idea, I was just thinking I also would like to be able to hide the plates (I should not write here, but since I liked the first version of the old Caterham without plates, FOR MY PRIVATE USE ONLY I hexedited last version .kn5 to set to 0 the visibilty bit of the plate object.... )

To control it via texture, I think the only way is to use a shader with the transparency defined from the alpha channel of the texture. When you don't want the plate, it should be possible to use for the skin a plates texture with total black alpha channel. I think you can surely use a 1x1 texture. When you want the plates you need nstead to use have the proper texture used for the plate with a total NON trasparent white alpha channel. By the way, I don't remember and I can't check now if there is such a shader that allow to have also the bump mapping effect used for plates....
P.S. - I think the plate objects should also be se to "no cast shadow"

Unfortunately I can't test directly if it works due to my game PC is away still for few weeks....
But I have this idea since a lot of time and I was planning to test it with a model I was working on.

 

[AccAkut]

You could do the plate thing via wing animation, I do it like this on the rear wing of my Audi. Just put keyframes on 100% and on 0% scale of the plate mesh.

Or just via transparent texture. This would be easier for a small thing like this. Shadow depends on the texture, so no need to deactivate it.

 

[Stereo]

For a license plate I use
ksPerPixelAT_NM
with
ksAlphaRef = 0.5 <- setting this means it won't cast a shadow if it's more than 50% alpha transparent
blendmode eAlphaBlend
isTransparent True

If you stick a transparent txDiffuse on it it'll just disappear no problem. Actually I include that as the default texture and then have different plates only in the skins.

Each plate's only 2 triangles though, I'd avoid doing this for more complicated meshes cause they still have to be rendered, it just ends up in "draw nothing" on every pixel. More in the spirit of "still counts towards 200k so maybe don't have an entire second set of rims" than "don't even do 500 faces" though.

 

[Ben O'Bro]

So it works But I couldn't remove the dropped shadow from the object, but it's just a plate so it's doesn't affect much, and mostly you don't notice it.
Need to redo the AO to remove the shades from it and we'll be good. 'maybe not the best angle, but yeah, front plate is gone Thanks for the tips!

Something else now... placeholder done for the LHD and early export, i wanted to make a dependence such as "S1" on kunos cars.
so i added "parent" line in ui/ui_car.json and the upgrade.png
it sees it in the Content Manager, but if i launch AC, the LHD doesn't appear at all!
Is there a unique "id" generated per cars? Or anything else to change in order to have child/parent hierarchy in cars, i couldn't find anything

I could launch the game with the LHD with content manager at least..
look who's punished today XD

GB plate + LHD ...

 

[marcocale]

So it works But I couldn't remove the dropped shadow from the object, but it's just a plate so it's doesn't affect much, and mostly you don't notice it.
.......

..

Both using the ksAlphaRef parameter as suggested from Stereo (better way) or even setting to false the plate object parameter "Cast Shadow" as I suggested (see below)? Strange....
May I ask if could be an idea or an acceptable suggestion if you can give the possibility to remove also the rear plate? Thank

 

[Stereo]

Something else now... placeholder done for the LHD and early export, i wanted to make a dependence such as "S1" on kunos cars.
so i added "parent" line in ui/ui_car.json and the upgrade.png
it sees it in the Content Manager, but if i launch AC, the LHD doesn't appear at all!
Is there a unique "id" generated per cars? Or anything else to change in order to have child/parent hierarchy in cars, i couldn't find anything

car.ini and ui_car.json are the only places I know of that have a name for the car (car.ini gets used ingame I believe, ui_car.json in the launcher) Base & upgrade probably both need the upgrade.png.

 

[Ben O'Bro]

@marcocale this should answer your request

it's one map for both plates (above each others so easier to have one template), either you put only the top transparent to keep bottom plate, or just an empty dds to have both hidden.

and no dropped shadow anymore. I thought i did, but must have forgotten the first time.
Only thing i noticed is that slight darker area (AO is fixed) and you see it only if it's in the shadow. To me that's acceptable, and will remain like this.

As for this child/parent thing, i'm tired of launching assetto again and again to check it... i even checked kunos (sorry) acd files but couldn't find anything helpful, i have no clue. Worse part is, i remember i got it working when i first did the clamshell version. But now, not a chance.
*[...]* i just tested something out of last hope. It was the god damn capitals in the folder name of the car... i had "_LHD" and it was messing up the json. that little fu*er. I just replaced to "_lhd" and that's it.
Ok moving on, it's working

my eyes may now rest!

 

[marcocale]

....

.....
Only thing i noticed is that slight darker area (AO is fixed) and you see it only if it's in the shadow. To me that's acceptable, and will remain like this.
.....

I think I had a similar problem on the tear-off f an Arai helmet I'm working on, but at end I solved it..... let me only think and remember what did the trick I didn't take note!

@Ben O'Bro !!!EDIT: found. In my case I had to set fresnelC parameter to 0 in my shader. I don't know which shader you are using, so not sure it could be helpful.

 

[Ben O'Bro]

no i'm an idiot. I didn't update the _map thing which set the reflection -_-
good because i'm not using any fresnel on my material!

 

[marcocale]

Perfect.... so even that "shadow in the shadow" has been solved..... => 100% perfect!
I assumed my suggestion was not applicable for you, since probably you are using the ksPerPixelAT_NM shader that, as far as I remember, has no fresnelC parameter.....

 

[Turbina]

Hello everyone,

I tried to do my first skin last night, and managed to get to a good point, until I realized that the car had a 'hardcoded' decal that was overlapping my paintscheme. I think the solution would be to take the texture file that has the decal and turn it into a transparent one. However I'm not sure how to do this, it seems to be a similar issue that was resolved on Ben'o'bro's Catherham (the license plate delete).

Can anyone help out? (I've already extracted the textures using 3dsimed so I know which one it is).

 

[Ben O'Bro]

Can anyone help out? (I've already extracted the textures using 3dsimed so I know which one it is).

hey
you just need an empty dds, could even be a 1x1 pixel with BLACK alpha channel and with the same name of the map which rules this sticker. That should do the trick