I've been trying to make a custom cliff material, but seem to have run into a snag. So, after 2 days of headaches I'm here to ask people more knowledgeable than myself. I'm hoping there's an easy solution that I've simply overlooked, but here's my rather long-winded account of the current state of things.
The problem:
See screenshots 1 and 2. The bright blue areas are supposed to be transparent to allow the terrain texture to show through. (Or at least they are in all of Blizzard's cliff materials.) However, for the life of me, I can't get them to actually be transparent.
What I know:
See screenshot 3 for my current material settings in Max (2010, using the latest available versions of the m3 plugins).
The base model is a Korhal Cliff Material, unmodified except to point to my custom textures. Current settings are identical to the settings of Blizzard's Korhal Cliff material in every way visible to the Max SC2 plugins.
My diffuse map has the corner blacked out in the alpha channel.
When a secondary light source shines on the cliff, the terrain textures bleed through as they should appear normally, except it also bleeds through the vertical portion of the cliff, not just the "ground" portion - see the right side of screenshot 1.
Blizzard's cliff material model only has 1 Material ID, so I know it's not an issue with multiple materials.
What I've tried unsuccessfully:
Every combination of blend modes in Blend Mode, Layer Blend and Emissive Blend.
Different Cutout values: 0, 0.5, 1 and 10.
An Alpha Mask map. One with the corner blacked out and one inverted.
Blacking out the corner in my specular map's alpha channel as well.
All 3 Alpha Flags in my diffuse map settings.
And now I'm out of ideas. So... thoughts from anyone else?
Add your Diffuse map with alpha channel to the Alpha Mask Map slot.
If you're still having issues getting it to work, try creating a test object with an alpha mask map and see if that exports correctly. If that doesn't work it might be the M3 plugin. If it does work, one of your other maps might be conflicting, try exporting out the material cube with just the diffuse map and alpha mask map assigned.
One small stupid step that I wouldn't have caught on my own - using the diffuse map for the Alpha Mask layer. I had subconsciously assumed it was just reading a straight greyscale image and interpreting it as an independent alpha channel, it somehow slipped my mind to try using an actual alpha channel in the slot.
Thanks.
The terrain texture still bleeds through when a secondary light shines on it but that's a fairly minor problem, relatively speaking.
I've been trying to make a custom cliff material, but seem to have run into a snag. So, after 2 days of headaches I'm here to ask people more knowledgeable than myself. I'm hoping there's an easy solution that I've simply overlooked, but here's my rather long-winded account of the current state of things.
The problem:
See screenshots 1 and 2. The bright blue areas are supposed to be transparent to allow the terrain texture to show through. (Or at least they are in all of Blizzard's cliff materials.) However, for the life of me, I can't get them to actually be transparent.
What I know:
See screenshot 3 for my current material settings in Max (2010, using the latest available versions of the m3 plugins).
The base model is a Korhal Cliff Material, unmodified except to point to my custom textures. Current settings are identical to the settings of Blizzard's Korhal Cliff material in every way visible to the Max SC2 plugins.
My diffuse map has the corner blacked out in the alpha channel.
When a secondary light source shines on the cliff, the terrain textures bleed through as they should appear normally, except it also bleeds through the vertical portion of the cliff, not just the "ground" portion - see the right side of screenshot 1.
Blizzard's cliff material model only has 1 Material ID, so I know it's not an issue with multiple materials.
What I've tried unsuccessfully:
And now I'm out of ideas. So... thoughts from anyone else?
@Telthalion: Go
hmmm... sounds like you're doing all the correct steps, but I'll lay everything out just incase or if anyone else has this problem in the future:
In Photoshop
Create an Alpha Channel in your Diffuse map, using white for opaque and black for Transparency
Save as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha for best results
In 3DS Max
in your Starcraft II Material:
Blending Mode: Alpha Blend
Layer Blend: Add
Emissive Blend: Add
Add your Diffuse map with alpha channel to the Alpha Mask Map slot.
If you're still having issues getting it to work, try creating a test object with an alpha mask map and see if that exports correctly. If that doesn't work it might be the M3 plugin. If it does work, one of your other maps might be conflicting, try exporting out the material cube with just the diffuse map and alpha mask map assigned.
I attached a demo M3 as well
Formally Kinkycactus
@ZombieZasz: Go
Aha! Victory!
One small stupid step that I wouldn't have caught on my own - using the diffuse map for the Alpha Mask layer. I had subconsciously assumed it was just reading a straight greyscale image and interpreting it as an independent alpha channel, it somehow slipped my mind to try using an actual alpha channel in the slot.
Thanks.
The terrain texture still bleeds through when a secondary light shines on it but that's a fairly minor problem, relatively speaking.