Revision as of 19:00, 25 May 2010

Overview

The dds image file controls texturing and shading, shininess, and adds details as overlays.

Multiplier

The Multiplier adds shading and details to meshes. It is a greyscale image with an alpha channel. The lighter gray will lighten the patterns used while darker grey to black will darken the patterns used.

• In clothing it is used to add fabric wrinkles and seams
• In objects it is used to add shading to corners
• In build items it is used to add architectural details

Specular

The specular adds highlighting and shine or reflectivity to your mesh. The specular is a brighter gray scale of the multiplier and has a black alpha channel. The white to gray will produce more highlights and shine where the darker gray to black will not produce highlights. Altering the specular to a varying shade of gray instead of black will also add reflectivity and shine, almost milky white.

Mask

The mask has four channels (RGBA) that define the three CASTable channels. Some objects have a fourth CASTable channel which is acheived by having the certain areas span more than one channel.

When viewing the channels in your graphics program the color will be applied to areas that are white while the black area will be transparent for that channel.

This file is saved as DXT1 | no alpha, unless you have an overlay and need the alpha then save as DXT3 | explicit alpha.

Overlay

This has textures that are not CASTable and they will always remain on top of any patterns applied to your mesh. This is used to add details for smaller areas that don't necessarily benefit from being CASTable or where you want a static image such as a tattoo or stencil type image. The overlay has an alpha that allows the transparency, black is transparent and white is where your texture details are.