Trigger
10-15-2003, 05:15 PM
I was looking at Ripas MP.28 (http://dodec.hlgaming.com/filedb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=233) in HLMV today, and when I went to look at the shaded mode, I noticed that it has what apprears to be no shading groups at all, I've attached an image of what I mean.
I found this interesting, since in any other application this would be a serious problem. Concievably though, since Half-Life doesn't take advantage of the more advanced shaders seen in modern games, this can be a benefit since you are completely in control of the shading by manipulation of the texture itself.
One thing I don't understand though, is how this effect was achieved, and is it infact a desired result?
After a bit of tinkering, I've managed to reproduce the effect. It seems the face normals are unchanged, but the vertex normals are nowhere to be found, which is producing the effect. In modeling programs, the models show up as silhouettes, black shapes with no apparent depth, but Half-life apparently gives this formless shape a neutral grey color, allowing textures to be seen in-game. I suppose I'm making a fool of myself by making a deal of such an innocuous thing as shading groups, but I'm a nerd, what do you want?
I found this interesting, since in any other application this would be a serious problem. Concievably though, since Half-Life doesn't take advantage of the more advanced shaders seen in modern games, this can be a benefit since you are completely in control of the shading by manipulation of the texture itself.
One thing I don't understand though, is how this effect was achieved, and is it infact a desired result?
After a bit of tinkering, I've managed to reproduce the effect. It seems the face normals are unchanged, but the vertex normals are nowhere to be found, which is producing the effect. In modeling programs, the models show up as silhouettes, black shapes with no apparent depth, but Half-life apparently gives this formless shape a neutral grey color, allowing textures to be seen in-game. I suppose I'm making a fool of myself by making a deal of such an innocuous thing as shading groups, but I'm a nerd, what do you want?