Black and grey non-glossy Textures (problem)

[Hydrag]

Hi Guys,

I'm currently working on a car where I also texture self build parts as well as the original car parts.
For now it's working okay, I'm mostly using Substance Painter to get an idea where on my map each part is and then adjust things with more details in Photoshop.

Now I'm stuck with a problem and althought it should be easy the amount of possible permutations drives me crazy as I'm currently re-doing that step for the 100th time. What I require is a part of the car that needs to black with slightly brighter stripes. In fact, I'm not even sure if the real car may just use the same color and play with the reflections a bit. But for my version it would be enough if the black is deep black and the stripes are slightly brighter than that.

Another important thing is, it really needs to look like non-glossy plastic, so no pointy highlights, not to bright reflections, etc. So I've created a map in Photoshop and exported it. The glossiness was okay, I chose a ksPerPixelAlpha with Normal Maps as shader, adjusted the parameters...it looked quite okay. The dark wasn't pure black and the stripes where too bright. So I just lowered brightness and then it turned purple. A bit darker and it went to green, a bit darker and it went to yellow. I even switched from RGB to GreyScale and applied a black and white effect it showed these colors.

So I had the idea that perhaps those minor differences in hues might induce errors when the compression is too high. So I set the .dds for no compression. This solved the issue but still it wouldn't work. I can bring the differences in black and grey down to a point where I cannot see it in Photoshop anymore. This will still be either too grey in the ksEditor and the ShowRoom or, if I change the values a bit, it will have a black white contrast that is much too bright for the grey parts.

So I took the car into the ShowRoom and changed the textures there, so I could see it with a higher resolution. Turns our, you need to set ksDiffuse to -18! For the black to become really black. Then it looks perfect, even when in game. But those slightly brighter parts will be too bright and I can't seem to find a way to adjust either ksAmbiet or ksDiffuse in the range from -20 to +20 so that black will be black and the contrast will be low.

Randomly changing them will turn the grey part into black or the black into yellow or the black into black while the grey will become white. But that final combination of black to black and grey to grey just doesn't seem to happen and it's driving me crazy.

Adding to this comes the fact that I am not sure about the reflections either. So of course going from highlights to less glossy things will increase those reflections and always add a grey layer on to of everything which could be the problem with my black colors.

This is the current setting that I'm using now:

SHADER=ksPerPixelNM_UVMult
ALPHABLEND=0
ALPHATEST=0
DEPTHMODE=0
VARCOUNT=13
VAR_0_NAME=ksAmbient
VAR_0_FLOAT1=2.6
VAR_0_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_0_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_0_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_1_NAME=ksDiffuse
VAR_1_FLOAT1=-17.9
VAR_1_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_1_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_1_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_2_NAME=ksSpecular
VAR_2_FLOAT1=0.2
VAR_2_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_2_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_2_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_3_NAME=ksSpecularEXP
VAR_3_FLOAT1=5
VAR_3_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_3_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_3_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_4_NAME=ksEmissive
VAR_4_FLOAT1=0
VAR_4_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_4_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_4_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_5_NAME=ksAlphaRef
VAR_5_FLOAT1=0
VAR_5_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_5_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_5_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_6_NAME=diffuseMult
VAR_6_FLOAT1=0
VAR_6_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_6_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_6_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_7_NAME=normalMult
VAR_7_FLOAT1=0
VAR_7_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_7_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_7_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_8_NAME=bo
VAR_8_FLOAT1=0
VAR_8_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_8_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_8_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_9_NAME=fresnelC
VAR_9_FLOAT1=0
VAR_9_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_9_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_9_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_10_NAME=fresnelEXP
VAR_10_FLOAT1=0
VAR_10_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_10_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_10_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_11_NAME=fresnelMaxLevel
VAR_11_FLOAT1=0
VAR_11_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_11_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_11_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_12_NAME=boh
VAR_12_FLOAT1=0
VAR_12_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_12_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_12_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
RESCOUNT=2
RES_0_NAME=txDiffuse
RES_0_SLOT=0
RES_0_TEXTURE=Streifen_2.dds
RES_1_NAME=txNormal
RES_1_SLOT=1
RES_1_TEXTURE=Front_Speckig_NM.dds

Does anyone know how I could solve this issue, any values, ideas?

Thank you all for any help,
Greetings

 

[AccAkut]

Do you have Content Manager? In its Showroom you can check every car's shader settings.

In general for the first three values, you never exceed a value of around 2. And you should use a MultiMap shader that has sunSpecular slots, as those actually give that typical glossy paint effect

These are the settings for that car:

[MATERIAL_0]
NAME=Body
SHADER=ksPerPixelMultiMap
ALPHABLEND=0
ALPHATEST=0
DEPTHMODE=0
VARCOUNT=18
VAR_0_NAME=ksAmbient
VAR_0_FLOAT1=0.45
VAR_0_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_0_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_0_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_1_NAME=ksDiffuse
VAR_1_FLOAT1=0.5
VAR_1_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_1_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_1_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_2_NAME=ksSpecular
VAR_2_FLOAT1=1
VAR_2_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_2_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_2_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_3_NAME=ksSpecularEXP
VAR_3_FLOAT1=50
VAR_3_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_3_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_3_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_4_NAME=ksEmissive
VAR_4_FLOAT1=0
VAR_4_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_4_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_4_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_5_NAME=ksAlphaRef
VAR_5_FLOAT1=0
VAR_5_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_5_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_5_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_6_NAME=fresnelC
VAR_6_FLOAT1=0.07
VAR_6_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_6_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_6_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_7_NAME=fresnelEXP
VAR_7_FLOAT1=3.5
VAR_7_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_7_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_7_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_8_NAME=fresnelMaxLevel
VAR_8_FLOAT1=0.5
VAR_8_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_8_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_8_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_9_NAME=nmObjectSpace
VAR_9_FLOAT1=0
VAR_9_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_9_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_9_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_10_NAME=isAdditive
VAR_10_FLOAT1=2
VAR_10_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_10_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_10_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_11_NAME=useDetail
VAR_11_FLOAT1=0
VAR_11_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_11_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_11_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_12_NAME=detailUVMultiplier
VAR_12_FLOAT1=0
VAR_12_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_12_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_12_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_13_NAME=shadowBiasMult
VAR_13_FLOAT1=0
VAR_13_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_13_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_13_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_14_NAME=damageZones
VAR_14_FLOAT1=0
VAR_14_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_14_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_14_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_15_NAME=dirt
VAR_15_FLOAT1=0
VAR_15_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_15_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_15_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_16_NAME=sunSpecular
VAR_16_FLOAT1=8
VAR_16_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_16_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_16_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
VAR_17_NAME=sunSpecularEXP
VAR_17_FLOAT1=2500
VAR_17_FLOAT2=0,0
VAR_17_FLOAT3=0,0,0
VAR_17_FLOAT4=0,0,0,0
RESCOUNT=4
RES_0_NAME=txDiffuse
RES_0_SLOT=0
RES_0_TEXTURE=adler_body.png
RES_1_NAME=txNormal
RES_1_SLOT=1
RES_1_TEXTURE=flat_nm.dds
RES_2_NAME=txMaps
RES_2_SLOT=2
RES_2_TEXTURE=adler_body_MAP.png
RES_3_NAME=txDetail
RES_3_SLOT=3
RES_3_TEXTURE=flat_detail.dds

you actually control the reflection and glossyness mostly with the texture in the txMaps slot (https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/can-we-only-change-color-spoiler.573/page-2#post-6478), doing it like this gives you much wider range of possible livery setups, one skin could be glossy, the next non reflective etc and can be tweaked for every nook of the skin