Strange Shadows Appear On Custom Skins


Power
10-12-2005, 01:50 AM
I'm getting a weird effect, on all maps, with a few of the reskins I've done.

Specifically, it affects an allied gear reskin, and a german body reskin.

I've tried resizing, and lots of different settings in VTFEdit, but nothing seems to get rid of it. Other, nearly identical skins don't have this problem

Any idea whats going wrong? I imported the .VTF's directly into PS, so thats not the problem...

For some reason the img tags aren't working so here are links..

www3.telus.net/Scholarships/Austin/Crosshatching1.jpg

www3.telus.net/Scholarships/Austin/Crosshatching2.jpg

BigRedJake
10-12-2005, 02:29 AM
Check your VMTs.

Power
10-12-2005, 02:38 AM
I don't see anything wrong...

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "models\player\german\german_body"
"$bumpmap" "models\german_body_normal"
}

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 06:54 AM
your forgot $model 1

Power
10-12-2005, 09:01 AM
I'm sorry, I only kinda know what you mean. Would you mind printing that out formatted?

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 11:18 AM
"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$model" 1
"$basetexture" "models\player\german\german_body"
"$bumpmap" "models\german_body_normal"
}

Kommie
10-12-2005, 11:27 AM
Nerd ;p

Power
10-12-2005, 01:28 PM
what does model 1 do?

the default .vmt's in the .gcf don't have that line...

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 01:56 PM
$model 1 tells the material system that the material is to be applied to a model. I can't say specifically what it does different as I don't know and it doesn't expand on it in the SDK docs.

As for why the ones in the GCF don't have it - you tell me. Someone not following their own documentation? :confused:

BigRedJake
10-12-2005, 02:08 PM
Originally posted by Trp. Jed
$model 1 tells the material system that the material is to be applied to a model. I can't say specifically what it does different as I don't know and it doesn't expand on it in the SDK docs.

As for why the ones in the GCF don't have it - you tell me. Someone not following their own documentation? :confused:
Hey Jed, might something like that need to be added to get my floors, etc. to work? Or am I just s.o.l. altogether still?

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 02:11 PM
Dunno. Are your floors models?

Whats the problem with your floors anyway?

BigRedJake
10-12-2005, 02:14 PM
Originally posted by Trp. Jed
Dunno. Are your floors models?

Whats the problem with your floors anyway?
Take a look in the thread I made below. The normal maps either don't show up at all or the surface has some serious lighting glitches.

Thread here. (http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56430) Guess you responded without reading my problem :/

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 02:53 PM
Well I did read it but assumed after your second post about lack of sleep you'd solved it.

I don't know much about how map surfaces use textures - the only thing I can think of from the top of my head is that either a) the base and normal map MUST bee the same dimensions formap surfaces or b) its something to do with the ligtmaps generated when the map is compiled.

BigRedJake
10-12-2005, 02:55 PM
Originally posted by Trp. Jed
Well I did read it but assumed after your second post about lack of sleep you'd solved it.

I don't know much about how map surfaces use textures - the only thing I can think of from the top of my head is that either a) the base and normal map MUST bee the same dimensions formap surfaces or b) its something to do with the ligtmaps generated when the map is compiled.

Thanks, Jed :)
If those are my two choices, it must be b then, because my maps are always the same dimentions as the original texture. Oh well, still s.o.l.

And yea, my fault for being not so clear in that thread. I had fixed the problem with the props_ normal maps, not so with the ground, etc.

Power
10-12-2005, 03:21 PM
While on the topic of strange GCF things, why are all the goldsource material files in the DoD:S .gcf?

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 03:25 PM
Example?

Power
10-12-2005, 03:32 PM
All that adding that "model" 1 line in the .vmt does is kick me out of servers due to enforcement of model consistency, specifically german_rocket.mdl...

As for old DoD files..
in my dod:s .gcf

root/dod/materials/models/player/german/german_soldier.vtf and .vmt

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 03:41 PM
Yeah well thats something Valve has done recently - they added consistency checks to stop people abusing the material system to make other players more visible.

I think when it was added to CSS they said it only allows VertexLitGeneric shaders on player models plus one base texture and one bumpmap, nothing else.

Odd that they'd throw and error on a key/value pair thats MEANT to be in a texture. I'll mail someone at Valve and mention it.

As for that texture - err, thats NOT a GoldSrc texture.

Power
10-12-2005, 04:04 PM
what are those _soldier.tfv's for then? they look like the old dod...

Trp. Jed
10-12-2005, 04:06 PM
They could just be old textures that got left in the GCF - it happens. Heck even the Half-Life 2 GCF has a picture of someones cat in it.

Power
10-12-2005, 04:08 PM
ok.

As for my shadow problem, any other suggestions?

amstehpwn
10-12-2005, 04:08 PM
I had shadows appear in game on a custom skin i was using.. It was only once, and with one person..

I actually became stuck inside someone else when we all ran from spawn at startup. I gren'd myself, then he ran off, and the shadows were there..

Has this happened before? Should i post the 'stuck inside someone else' thing on a bug thread?

Power
10-12-2005, 11:28 PM
I fixed it.

The error was that the path in the .vmt file for the normal map was wrong...it was missing a folder.

Trp. Jed
10-13-2005, 06:59 AM
Ah, which would of meant it kicked back to using the purple and black check pattern for the normal map, which would of resulted in it messing with the lighting normals and hence giving you the shadows.

Power
10-13-2005, 05:02 PM
oh yeah, that makes perfect sense!

but the models 1 thing did make it impossible to join a server...I tested it again last night.

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