The new phong effect is not just limited to player models as i am sure you know, it can be used on all models and maybe veen world brush textures?

To use phong on a model add these paerms to your VMT


// "$phongexponent" "5"
"$phongboost" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[1 2 6]"
// "$halflambert" "1"
"$phongexponenttexture" "models\player\american\american_gear_exp"
// "$phongalbedotint" "1"


This is a direct copy/paste from the american gear VMT

You will need to create a custom "$phongexponenttexture" for it too look right ingame though, you can just comment out the "$phongexponenttexture" line and still get the effect but it will not look very realistic

You can use the us gear exp vtf for ref on how to go about making one of those textures

I am working on one for the garand right now . . .

Been messing with that for the past few days, but it doesn't seem to like me. I either get supper gloss, or no effect what so ever. And the darker or lighter I make it doesn't seem to help much.

Well you just leave the .vmt settings at default and tweak your exponent texture until you get the right effect

Not sure how to go about creating a correct exponent texture, does anyone here have experience with this?

I created my own exp texture to try out custom phong lighting on custom skins. Please note though that my explanation will only make sense to you if you know about photoshop and its lingo.

[KEY]
skin.vtf= main texture
skin_normal.vtf= the skin's normal mapping texture
skin_exp.vtf= skin's exponent texture


(Using Photoshop)

(An alpha channel has to be made for phong lighting in the skin_normal.vtf in order to specify what is phong lighted and what isn't.)

Copy the alpha channel made for the skin_normal.vtf. Create a new file and paste. Create a new layer and fill it with the color "Red 0 Green 252 Blue 0." Set this layer to "multiply" and make it the top layer if not already. All the black should now be a bright green. Now you have to go into the main layer and dodge/burn (any method-- tool, adjustment layers...etc) the areas you want to shine more or less. The blacker, the shinier; the greener the duller.

Now this may not be the easiest, quickest, or even the correct way of doing an exponent layer. All I know is that this is how I was able to do it.

Can you post a pic of how it looks?

http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/5505/preview1ee.jpg

This was my first attempt.

I meant the how the model looks ingame with your EXP map but thanks for posting that anyway, looks pimp

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
I meant the how the model looks ingame with your EXP map but thanks for posting that anyway, looks pimp

To be honest...the custom exponent texture didn't look much different than the default used with the custom skin.

Anyways, I won't use it because I'd rather have class specific skins than phong lighting and one skin per team.

Dont mean to hijack..but is there a way to turn phong off in console or w/ a config command?

Originally posted by cruzaderazn
Anyways, I won't use it because I'd rather have class specific skins than phong lighting and one skin per team.
So we can't have phong on class specific skins?

Originally posted by BLACKFIRE210
So we can't have phong on class specific skins?

At the moment no. This is only because the models used for class specific skins are now causing consistency errors. I'm trying to hack the new default models so that it is possible to use class specific skins with phong lighting. My only problem is that I don't know anything about compiling.

Okay, so using that advice that Cruz gave I have gotten some phong goin on! :) here are some examples:

Sproily's Garand (largish gif):
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5539/garand11uj.th.gif (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=garand11uj.gif)

30 cal:


and HANDS! (closesed thing to sub-surface scattering I think we will get in source :():




I just got these results today but have to go to work, so I will work on them more later. I may release the hands because...well I think they are near perfect!

Tone

Oh dude, sick, you gotsto release those to the public, im gonna work on afew myself

RELEASE! The hands and Garand look awesome but I can't see what changed on the 30 cal :/

Ok so i made my own exp texture for the hands but when i play the game i get these squards on my hands when the phong ighlight passes over them they are fullbright, they look like the black and purple checkerboard but they are bright white and only show every other squar . . .

Also the phong highlights arent being confined to the black areas, the whole texture is highlighted . . .

Can you guys post the text from your VMTs please?

I just coppied mine directly from the player model VMTs

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked

// "$phongexponent" "5"
"$phongboost" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[1 2 6]"
// "$halflambert" "1"
"$phongexponenttexture" "models\player\american\american_gear_exp"
// "$phongalbedotint" "1"



For the record, do you (or anyone else) have recommended values, depending what kind of model it is, for the variables? Like weapons, hands, etc.?

Ok i fixed the checkerboard problem, i forgot to add the HAND path to the exp directory . . . .

But the phong highlight still shows up on the whole hand

My exponent texture had only the fingers black and the rest green because i am using dillinger's glove skin

Any idea wtf's up?

Anyone?

What about your normal's alpha? if it is default white then that is most likely your problem. See Cruz's post on the 1st page about all that.

And I am glad that y'all like my stuff. And as for the 30cal, those are not before/after pics, all these pics are just the phong in different lighting...if that is what was being refered to. But if you mean no difference from default, you need to see the default again :p

Then post a picture of the default cause I have no time to play anymore :( lol

Well my normalmap doesnt have an alpha channel but i was looking at the default player normal maps and they dont have an alpha either and they work fine

Mine dont even have varying degrees of highlight, the whole thing is just phonged, ill try an alpha on my normalmap anyway though, thx

Ok i tryed it with the alpha masked normal map and that didnt do anything, i will post the contents of my VMT and my normal amd EXP map, tell me whats up


"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand"
"$bumpmap" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand_normal"

"$phong" "1"

// "$phongexponent" "5"
"$phongboost" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[1 2 6]"
// "$halflambert" "1"
"$phongexponenttexture" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand_exp"
// "$phongalbedotint" "1"
}



http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8670/vhandexp3qf.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7042/vhandnormal6ez.jpg

Post what your alpha channel looks like from your normal map. From what I can see, this is what is causing your problem. PM me for further details.

I finally figured it out, oone told me that the alpha channel had to be reversed . ..

Heres one that I tried out.

The way I made my exp was just to take the original texture and colorize it to the appropriate green, and then brighten. Not exactly the most accurate method but was a 30 second process that worked

Now those sleeves look like they are made from the material in COD2

omg FBOTheLiuetenant are those the default models? Cuz if they are the phong made them look 5000000000000000000x better....do you think you could do all that for all the default weapons? (I know thats alot to ask, but you did such a great job on it...)

I agree, the effects on that Garand are great.

Yeah the are default models, but not default textures, I have already done this for the Garand, Carbine, BAR, STG, MP40, Thompson, KAR 98, and KAR 98 sniper. The thompson didnt quite turn out as well as the others, and another thing, none of these skins are mine, so I cant take any credit except for adding Phong. If you want I'll find a spot to host all of the .vmt files.

If anyone has comments

I'll host for you

- or if you already have a spot then link me up =]

I can get them hosted, I just need to actually get around to it. Just wanted to hear what peeps thought

Looks pretty nice but a bit overdone especially on the wood, you can tone doen the highlights by blackballing the alpha channel and greenballing the exp where the wood is

Also using the "$phongexponent" "5" in the VMT is a good thing to do, higher number smooth out the phong and lower ones make it more detailed, i think its a ratio for the normal map

I have "$phongexponent" set to 3 on my models and it works beautifully

I have already done the garand, hands, spade, stick, mk2 grenade, amerknife, thompson and tiger tank, the thompson didnt come out to well because i used the alpha channel that was stored in the vtf

Ill post some pics in a few

Here are some pis, i need to fine tune all of them cept for the frag and tiger, i think they look pimp

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5154/doddonner00112bf.jpg
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/4993/doddonner00120gv.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9589/doddonner00150sz.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3695/doddonner00178je.jpg
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5330/dodgamein00037yn.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/236/dodgamein00056ib.jpg

I am going to work on more map models later, get them all gussied up . . .

^^^ Looking pretty sweet!

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
Here are some pis, i need to fine tune all of them cept for the frag and tiger, i think they look pimp

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5154/doddonner00112bf.jpg
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/4993/doddonner00120gv.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9589/doddonner00150sz.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3695/doddonner00178je.jpg
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5330/dodgamein00037yn.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/236/dodgamein00056ib.jpg

I am going to work on more map models later, get them all gussied up . . .

Hey Stars, it's Shoes bro. This stuff is looking crazy good bro. It's funny, thus far all the custom content I've seen you use... I use too, except for you Garand. I don't care for Sproily's Garand. I use Gen's. But yeah, I'm excited to have you release all of this stuff dude. Do you think you can phong Gen's Garand, mainly just the metal portion? Also are you planning on doing the .30 cal?

Hurry up and release this stuff dude! It's lookin so clean it makes me wanna cry. Anway, see you in the server dude. Peace out.

P.S. Hurry up and release Gamein. :P

Great stuff NC. Phong really brings out the detail on bumpmaps that otherwise goes unnoticed.

Yeah ill throw my shtuff up on filefront real quick and i can do a phong foor gens garand, gimme a link to it, im not sure which one your talking about

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
Here are some pis, i need to fine tune all of them cept for the frag and tiger, i think they look pimp

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5154/doddonner00112bf.jpg
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/4993/doddonner00120gv.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9589/doddonner00150sz.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3695/doddonner00178je.jpg
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5330/dodgamein00037yn.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/236/dodgamein00056ib.jpg

I am going to work on more map models later, get them all gussied up . . .

Very nice job!:D

Here's the link brozer: http://dodcustomcontent.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=ns_getit&cid=44&lid=164&type=url#get

I just adore that skin, I don't think I'd use any other. Hit me up when you post your phonged work on FileFront.

Cheers.

See you on the server dude.

Great work on the rifles, they look very nice. As stated before, the sleeves do look a bit too shiny...but overall nice job.

Hmm I got default hands working with phong, but I don't know if it's noticeable enough, or just enough.

Well after messing with phong a bit i found out that the darkness of the black in the exp has no effect on the amount of highlight you get, the black just tells the engine where to render the highlight

The same goes for the normalo map alpha channel

I have been getting reall nice results by just changing the VMT values, here are the vmts i use for hands and sleeves


* HANDS *

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand"
"$bumpmap" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand_normal"

"$phong" "1"

"$phongexponent" "15"
"$phongboost" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[0.3 2.3 5.3]"
// "$halflambert" "1"
"$phongexponenttexture" "models\weapons\v_models\hands/v_hand_exp"
"$phongalbedotint" "1"
}


* SLEEVES *

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "MODELS\WEAPONS\V_MODELS\HANDS\us_sleeve"
"$bumpmap" "models\weapons\v_models\HANDS\us_sleeve_normal"

"$phong" "1"

"$phongexponent" "30"
"$phongboost" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[0.1 2.1 5.1]"
// "$halflambert" "1"
"$phongexponenttexture" "models\weapons\v_models\HANDS\us_sleeve_exp"
"$phongalbedotint" "1"
}




The most important part to note is the "$phongexponent" and "$phongfresnelranges" values

"$phong exponent" as far as i can tell changes the contrast of the highlights against the exponent texture, higher numbers are more true to the exponent texture . . .

"$phongfresnelranges" is like using RGB on water, high numbers are more saturated, lower numbers are less saturated, so the lower these numbers the less visable the highlights are so this is like an opacity adjustment

Would this be a better option to use for creating metallic looking images, or would reflections work better?

Well i havn't tryed using envmaps with phong, i am sure it would work fine but phong create a mcuh more realistic looking metalic surface in my opinion

Anyway i have created a quick tutorial on how to create phong materials, it can be found in the tutorials section of these boards here

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=955682#post955682

Just released a phongpack for ALL stock viewmodels, here is the thread iover in releases

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66747

Originally posted by Strafe
Dont mean to hijack..but is there a way to turn phong off in console or w/ a config command? cl_phong "0"

I have tryed cl_phong 0, doesn't seem to do anything . . .

thats because the command is r_phong

and phong on sleeves = bad. i mean what kind of cloth is shiney ?

and unless your hands are covered in vasoline.....for an unknown reason...why would they shine?

Originally posted by [BREAD]Toaster
thats because the command is r_phong

and phong on sleeves = bad. i mean what kind of cloth is shiney ?

and unless your hands are covered in vasoline.....for an unknown reason...why would they shine?

I don't want them to shine, neither do most people. Yet, I don't want the sleeves and hands to be all out dull, because in the light cloth has highlights though the material is not reflective.

Well skin still has reflective properties in real life if you look at it near any light source and when you sweat it is even more relfective, i am sure that the soldiers in ww2 were sweating

And the cloth on the sleeves was more tight nit then common everyday clothes which also made it a bit shiney, on my screen it looks just right

Skin and textiles should be dealt with using normal maps. Both phong and alpha mapping makes them look too synthetic. Phong should be safe to use on primarily wood and metal.

I tried to phong these hands: I am a link (http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/5590)

Resulting THIS (http://rapidshare.de/files/25578969/v_hand_exp.vtf.html)

But it seems not to work. All parts of the hands are shiny. I've red that u have to reverse the alpha channel or something. Well I'm a goddamn PS-Noob and I would be pleased if you could help me :)

Originally posted by [BREAD]Toaster
and unless your hands are covered in vasoline.....for an unknown reason...why would they shine?
Soldiers sweat in combat...sweating makes your skin shine

r_phone doesn't work.

a tutorial in the tutorials section of these boards on how to setup phong

Basicly in your normalmap your alpha channel's white area will have phong, the black will not

And on your exponent texture ur black will have phong and ur green will not

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
a tutorial in the tutorials section of these boards on how to setup phong

Basicly in your normalmap your alpha channel's white area will have phong, the black will not

And on your exponent texture ur black will have phong and ur green will not You can vary it with shades of grey and such so not everything is blindingly white... :o

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
a tutorial in the tutorials section of these boards on how to setup phong

Basicly in your normalmap your alpha channel's white area will have phong, the black will not

And on your exponent texture ur black will have phong and ur green will not

Lol. What a horribly general description. :D

- The alphachannel of the normalmap defined in $bumpmap affects the intensity of the specular highlight. The closer to white the pixel is, the brighter the highlight becomes.

- The map defined as $phongexponenttexture dictates the size of the specular highlight. As you increase the value, the highlight gets smaller and the material appears shinier. Basically white means a sharp white "dot" hightlight, black means a spread out, diffuse highlight.

- The $ambientocclusiontexture is, I believe, a map used to occlude or block off phone highlighting from certain parts of the texure. Black is totally occluded, white is none. I'm not sure of exactly how it works but it seems to work best for occluding phone from areas that have shadows cast on them by other parts of the model.

- The $phongboost value is the phong overbrightening factor (specular mask channel should be authored to account for this).

- The $phongfresnalranges define parameters for remapping fresnel output.

- The $phongexponent parameter overrides the alpha channel of the normal map (if any) to provide a phong exponent.

- The $phong parameter simply turns phone on or off.

Actually, I do not think the $phongexponent cancels out the normal's alpha. As it seems that alpha works with the exponent for fine tuning. The alpha still works like the ref map, but instead is just giving more control than the exponent allows. If you were to make the alpha all white then you would get overbearing brightness with the exponent just defining how the light is dispersed, though if the alpha where all black then there would be practically no phong.

Originally posted by Tonedef
Actually, I do not think the $phongexponent cancels out the normal's alpha. As it seems that alpha works with the exponent for fine tuning. The alpha still works like the ref map, but instead is just giving more control than the exponent allows. If you were to make the alpha all white then you would get overbearing brightness with the exponent just defining how the light is dispersed, though if the alpha where all black then there would be practically no phong.

Err thats what I said :D

Alpha = Brightness/Intesity of the phong per pixel.
Exponent = Sharpness/Glossiness of the phong per pixel.

Ohhhh lol, I got all mixed up because I was thinking $phongexponenttexture when I read the $phongexponent definition, sorry lol.

So your saying that my exponent texture can be black n white ?

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
So your saying that my exponent texture can be black n white ?

Correct, in fact I have no idea why people are making them green. The only green tinted exponent map I have ever seen in is the American body sheet. The German one is greyscale and all the exponent maps in EP1 are greyscale too. It's green either as part of some crazy experiment when they first wrote the shader or the colour per pixel has some relevence to light angles maybe. Certainly I would say it's an "oddity" and as every exponent map I've ever seen both in Source, other game engines and 3D modelling packages is greyscale, I'd assume thats how it's meant to be.

I've create the following diagram to try and help explain the relationship between the specular map, which is in the normal maps alpha channel, and the phong exponent map.



In the diagram each ball is rendered with the specular and exponent being a single shade of grey. The key shows exactly which shade is used for what percentage.

Now, in the case of the red balls, hey have a completely black (0%) exponent map and varing degrees of specular mapping. As you can see the lighter the colours in your specular map the more intense the specular highlight.

Moving onto the blue balls (fnarr) we're starting to introduce a phong exponent which controlls the glossiness. As you can see with 0% exponent the shine is very diffuse and spread out as would be on something like a dullish metal or plastic. As the exponent percentage increases (moves towards white) the specular highlight becomes smaller as if the surface is becoming much more polishes and glossy. In the case of 100% exponent the surface almost appears like highly polished glass.

So, to recap, specular (normal alpha chanel) controls the strength of the specular highlights (or in the case of using and env_map, the reflection) and the phone exponent control how glossy or polished the surface is which effects how diffuse the highlight will be.

Now, onto practical usage. The following is the CS:S AK47 V_model as three maps - texture, specular and exponent:



The base texture needs no explaining. The specular dictates per pixel the strength of the reflection/highlight. The exponent, as explained dictates how glossy the surface is.

Now, why are they such blocky colours? Well the texture has the actual visual representation of the surface and the specular how shiney it is. But consider this - the gun metal parts are made of the same material so by logic, they should have the same ammount of glossiness wherever that material is on the texture. Sure the specular map dictates which parts are shiniest but gun metal has a pretty constant lustre all over.

Lookng at the specular map the main metal is dark grey meaning a fairly diffuse highlight. The wooden parts are varnished and thus are slightly lighter meaning a less diffuse highlight. Further on lighter more polished metals have lighter exponent values indicating they are highly polished.

The benefit of using exponent maps like this is that they are simpler and can be smaller. For the purpose of illustration I made it the same size as the original texture so a direct 1-to-1 comparison could be made. However because the detail is so simple you could easily scale it down by half or even four times without problem saving a lot of memory.

Anyway, hope that provides some more answers. :D

I like pictures of balls.

Ahhh, i see

I hd been using that allied exponent as a reference this whole time, it works but its much easier to work with b&w

WHat does "$phongalbedotint" do ?

Wow Jed! What would we do without you? lol. Though I don't use the green either, I just never felt like saying anything lol.

And I believe the tint will do the samething it does with ref maps, tints. Lol. I ised the tint in ref maps to make the reflections darker, not less reflections, just darker ones.

As for my own phong stuff, I have half of the weapons phonged and they look so good! Though I realized, I don't have any default skins. I may release I dunno.

Originally posted by Someth|ngW|cked
WHat does "$phongalbedotint" do ?

You know I couldnt find that but I assume it allows the phone highlight to be tinted by the ambient light?

Nearly all of the parameters I got from the shader DLLs themselves - it's partly documented and you have to get at it with a hex editor.

Interesting theory this though - is $phongalbedotint actually working? Its the only parameter I couldnt find in any of the DLLs and I'm actually wondering if its a typo and that it should be $phongabledotint (phong able do tint = "phong is able to do tint).

Maybe someone wants to try my spelling and see if they notice if the phong highlights get tinted in game?

Well the phong on my models does tint itselt to the lightsource's colors with or without this peram enabled but it noticed that it is not hxed out in the default player VMTs which is why i was woundering what it does . . .

I didn't notice any differeitn with or without it though, ill try changing the spelling

Also, when entering a value for "$phongexponent" is it a value from 0 to 255 just like color values for white or is it a valuve from 0 to 100 for opacity of the white value?

0-255 usually.

10 day bump, but albedo is the ratio of reflectivity to absorption, how much light is reflected and how much light is absorbed by the material. Snow, for example, is usually around 0.9.

I'm messing around trying to get envmap reflection to work together with phong but no luck yet.
Anyone got it to work or has any clues on it?

Originally posted by BERSERK3R
I'm messing around trying to get envmap reflection to work together with phong but no luck yet.
Anyone got it to work or has any clues on it?

Also is it possible to make sure if you use a "phongexponenttexture", that you really see the shiny bits on what you define, so like the texture has pure black and pure white.
Cause now if I make some parts pure black and some white the white parts still shines, and can look bad.