(Request) Polished Gold Texture

[Naticus]

This one should be pretty easy but I am having a hell of a time executing it. I need a polished gold texture like you would find on gold bars. Shiny, metallic and gold... easy right? I'd like some slight imperfections in the texture to give a little character and it should be tileable. If anyone is willing to give it a go, please also include the settings you recommend using for the environment mask as well as any other vmt parameters. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Gambini]

I can tell you what you have to do in order to make yours, which is pretty easy.

1- Create a black box, small as posible -since it wont be visible- example 32x32.

2- Save it as DTX5 and make sure the alpha channel is completely white.

3- Then make sure the vmt file looks something like this:

Code: Select all

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
   "$baseTexture" "metal/gold"
   "$surfaceprop"   "metal"
     "$envmap" "env_cubemap"
       "$basealphaenvmapmask" 1
                "$envmaptint" 1 .5 .01
}

If it doesn´t look like real gold, play with the envmaptint values it´s RGB in percentages, while 1 is 255 and 0 is 0.

[Naticus]

My texture keeps coming out black in game with zero reflectivity. Any idea of what I could be doing wrong? I started with the vmt settings exactly as you laid out. I also created a 32x32 black texture with a pure white alpha layer and saved as DTX5. I also added cubemaps.

[Gambini]

I´m sorry, I made a mistake when writting the instructions, the alpha channel should be completely black. It´s just that "basealphaenvmapmask" command works the inverse and i forgot.

So, that, make the alpha completely black and try again.

NOTES: It is possible that the "basealphaenvmapmask" and the alpha channel in the vmf aren´t needed. Meaning that, with no envmap exponent, the engine will make it fully reflective. This would allow to save the material in DTX1 format which could save some memory (very little btw, but every bit counts when it´s about performance). Be sure to try this just after making sure the previous method worked (so you can go back, if this doesn´t work). Also, you would like to add "$nodecal" to the vmt in order to avoid bulletholes.

EDIT: Just noticed that my chrome material sizes 8x8 and it works perfectly, you know the smaller the better performance performance performance

[Naticus]

Yep, it was black instead of white. Now it works great. Here is the vmt I went with:

Code: Select all

LightmappedGeneric
{
$basetexture "nakatomi/gold076a"
$basealphaenvmapmask 1
$surfaceprop metal
$envmap env_cubemap
$envmaptint "{ 220 200 110}"
$envmapcontrast 0.5
$envmapsaturation 1.2
}


[Naticus]

Here is how it looks in game:


Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[Gary]

Whoa, that came out great...

[no00dylan]

Wow! It sure did!

[Zecrah]

Shiny

[joe_rogers_11155]

now i want golden vortigaunts in a mod called "The Midas Touch"