Hello there, I really need some help figuring out this problem I made an album with all images I think that can help you help me.
[URL="http://imgur.com/a/Jihy2#0"]http://imgur.com/a/Jihy2#0[/URL]
My problem is that I made this model and I wanted to make some fine metal texture for it, I managed to do that in 3d-coat but when I export everything up with the textures and make a vmt file for the model it doesn't look like its supposed to do, in 3d-coat it has a nice metal look when reflecting in a light source, but in Garry's Mod its looking like rubber or something, my guess is that the vmt file is completely nooby, or that my normal map is shit. I really need your guys proffesional look on this issue, thanks for reading name anything you need to get you started in solving the problem, im desperate.
Final note: I also made a specular map or gray scale picture because I thought it was better than bumb map, Im really new at this and I want the best result in having a metal look with some nice details as you can see in the pictures I linked. - I dont know how to set up the specular map so please explain if thats the case.
It is indeed a problem with your VMT and possibly your normal map.
In general, for metal objects you want to use cubemaps. It looks like you're using phong right now, which is more for a wet (or rubbery) look.
However, don't ask me to how to use envmap properly, because I'm not very good at it. I recommend you find some metal objects that have a material look similar to what you want to achieve, and salvage their VMT parameters and then adjust as necessary.
[editline]fish[/editline]
Didn't see you had a picture of your VMT in there. Yeah, your phong is most probably overpowering your envmap. Try to bring your envmap up and your phong down, see what effect you can get. [b]mat_reloadallmaterials[/b] is your best friend for this, so you can make changes while in-game and then just reload the materials to see how they look.
look up envmaptint, set the variables as low as 0.1 0.1 0.1 to even 0.01 0.01 0.01. you'll have to fiddle around with it for better results. a gloss map could also make your texture look better as well, however metal in source engine will always look like shit.
edit: for how bright your specular is, set envmaptint even lower than 0.01. just keep testing until it's darker.
it's not phong like what this guy says, it's definitely your envmap. also you could really do with more contrast in your specular itself.
edit2: flip your green channel in your normal map too
Your phong exponent is all wrong. It's a gloss setting. an exponent map is closest to a gloss map in most rendering engines, the $phongexponent will define a single level for the whole texture. In source, rough and low gloss (ie paper, dry sand, etc) values would be something like 1-10. 11-25 are somewhat glossy, something like skin or plastic or a synthetic material, and 30+ would be close to metal, but capping at 50.
Also off are your frensel angles, I find a good set is [.3 .8 7].
I would disable tint, and unless you have a $phongexponenttexture, $phongalbedotint is unused (if you do, it tints the phong based off of the color of the diffuse by a factor set by the green channel, where black is no tint and white is fully tinted)
$phongboost is a global multiplier of the phong strength, used in conjunction with your normalmap mask.
I would recommend trying a phongexponent of like 20-30, and adjusting the boost and brightness of your spec map based on how it looks ingame. I'd also suggest boosting your specmap to [.2 .2 .2]
Guys I have to say thank you very much, im new at editing with the .vmt file so these post can only help. Again thank you for all the help on phong.
Edit: I've been trying for ages to make the best setting's Im starting to think its my normal and specular maps that sucks, can you guys advice me how to make the best maps possible?
Please check out the imgur album again and see what i ended up with, thanks for all the help but I could still need some feedback please.
your smoothing groups on your model seem to be a bit broken on compile.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
