SHADER window/glass material

[luchian]

AC member TTM (< thank you) found a way to do some decent looking window/glass material, should you need one for your tracks. Here is his method:

"Step1:
Window texture alpha channel controls window transparency. Texture must be saved 8.8.8.8 argb 32 bpp - unsigned

Step2: ksEditor
Select window object and apply ksPerPixelAT material and then apply ksPerPixelReflection material. ..Without applying ..PixelAT material first window is not transparent.

Step3:
Material settings. ksSpecularEXP value controls reflection sharpness. (There is no need 0,5 to KsAlphaRef, i left value accidentally..) isAdditeve needs to be 1. FresnelMaxLevel is window's brightness, maybe not right word describe, but change value and you see.

btw, there is also ksPerPixelSimpleRefl material with same values to material window only relfects blue color."​

 

[MGMetroDave]

Hi Luchian,

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to make these instructions. I've already used them several times and it generally works great! The tip about switching to alphatest shader first for transparency worked perfectly. Thanks.

I did have 1 little question about the level of transparency, though.

Window texture alpha channel controls window transparency

Basically I'm trying to create heavily black tinted glass for a trackside building, which in daylight is heavily tinted and looks almost opaque, but at night is lit up from the inside. It's based on a real life building where this happens.

I've tested and tested, but can't quite get it to appear correctly. It may just be a glitch my end, but I've noticed that while the alpha channel of the image definitely does control transparency, it seems to only allow 3 options: fully opaque, 50% transparent, or 100% transparent. It seems to 'snap' to one of these settings depending on which is the closest option to the actual alpha channel transparency. Hope that makes sense.

e.g. if I set the alpha channel to something near 50% grey, the window will be 50% transparent, but if I try to increase the opacity closer to about 80% (a lighter grey on the alpha), it appears fully opaque, since this was the closest option.

The only reason I can think why it's doing this is because the shader might be using 'alpha test' mode rather than 'alpha blend' mode.

In the material properties in ksEditor there's the option to change it to alpha blend, which then gives the impression of working perfectly when viewed in ksEditor, but in game it still appears fully opaque if the alpha channel colour is too light.

Just wondering if you (or anyone else here) has any suggestions on this from your experience? Sorry for the long post! Thanks!

 

[luchian]

First of all this is the perfect way of asking for help. You have clearly explained what the issue it, so kudos on that.

Unfortunately, I did not experiment more than this with the shader, so I'm afraid I cannot contribute. Hopefully, some of the "elders" know something more (..or at the least, know if this is the limit).

 

[MGMetroDave]

Thank you Luchian for your super quick reply. Really appreciate your reply even if on this occasion you couldn't help. Hopefully someone else can chime in

 

[Johnr777]

Hopefully I can help...

Nowadays with CSP and SOL, the game is looking great, with new features and what not... but ksEditor is still the same old one, made to resemble things before CSP. So often you are going to get different results in both scenarios.

Best is to pay attention to what the game outputs, and not the editor.

Here is what I've been using for window settings. have a look at ambient and diffuse settings, all zeros.

The texture itself:

 

[MGMetroDave]

Thank you, Johnr777. I will try this. Really appreciate your help.

 

[Kornepheros]

I've been working on a track that has a stream running nearby. I've created a rocky-textured creek bottom with a plane of "glass" plane sitting 10 cm above it. I used a custom DDS image that has a wave pattern to try to give some texture to the water surface. I then used the ksPerPixelReflection shader with the settings used by Johnr777 and it looks really great in the ksEditor... but in the game (using Content Manager) it's opaque purple! (Actually, the water looks good when looking through it at the car tires, but is opaque when looking through it to the stream bed. Also, I adjusted the ambient and diffuse settings to show the water texture better, but the results were the same when I tested with these set to zero.) Reading through this entire discussion, there are a couple of things that were not clear to me that may be the culprit:

1. luchian mentioned the need to apply the ksPerPixelAT shader first... but I'm not sure what this means... Do I simply set the object's shader to ksPerPixelAT (do the settings matter?), then switch to ksPerPixelReflection? Or is there some way to apply two shaders at the same time that I haven't figured out yet? What does this need to look like in the .fbx.ini file?

2. MGMetraDave thanked luchian for the tip on switching to alphatest shader first... is this referring to the ksPerPixelAT shader? eAlphatest is a blend mode within a shader, not a shader itself, and I don't recall luchian saying anything about using eAlphaTest in this discussion instead of eAlphaBlend...

3. luchian also mentioned the need to use an argb 8.8.8.8 texture... Might this different from other DDS images that I have used successfully on my track? I am no expert on DDS files or how GIMP saves them, but my 2048x2048 image saved uncompressed is 16 MB in size, which is exactly what I would expect... Might my ignorance about this file format be the problem? Here is what my image looks like, texture on the left, alpha channel on the right:

After trying to get the ksPerPixelReflection shader to work, I later found and installed the stFlow shader. Now my water is animated and looks amazing in ksEditor:

But the animated water is still purple in the game! It looks like some sort of toxic sludge instead of water:

Oddly, I've discovered that playing using my Oculus Rift results in the purple color... if I play on a monitor it looks opaque grey:

Does anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong?

 

[garyjpaterson]

I've been working on a track that has a stream running nearby. I've created a rocky-textured creek bottom with a plane of "glass" plane sitting 10 cm above it. I used a custom DDS image that has a wave pattern to try to give some texture to the water surface. I then used the ksPerPixelReflection shader with the settings used by Johnr777 and it looks really great in the ksEditor... but in the game (using Content Manager) it's opaque purple! (Actually, the water looks good when looking through it at the car tires, but is opaque when looking through it to the stream bed. Also, I adjusted the ambient and diffuse settings to show the water texture better, but the results were the same when I tested with these set to zero.) Reading through this entire discussion, there are a couple of things that were not clear to me that may be the culprit:

1. luchian mentioned the need to apply the ksPerPixelAT shader first... but I'm not sure what this means... Do I simply set the object's shader to ksPerPixelAT (do the settings matter?), then switch to ksPerPixelReflection? Or is there some way to apply two shaders at the same time that I haven't figured out yet? What does this need to look like in the .fbx.ini file?

2. MGMetraDave thanked luchian for the tip on switching to alphatest shader first... is this referring to the ksPerPixelAT shader? eAlphatest is a blend mode within a shader, not a shader itself, and I don't recall luchian saying anything about using eAlphaTest in this discussion instead of eAlphaBlend...

3. luchian also mentioned the need to use an argb 8.8.8.8 texture... Might this different from other DDS images that I have used successfully on my track? I am no expert on DDS files or how GIMP saves them, but my 2048x2048 image saved uncompressed is 16 MB in size, which is exactly what I would expect... Might my ignorance about this file format be the problem? Here is what my image looks like, texture on the left, alpha channel on the right:

View attachment 4337

After trying to get the ksPerPixelReflection shader to work, I later found and installed the stFlow shader. Now my water is animated and looks amazing in ksEditor:

View attachment 4334
But the animated water is still purple in the game! It looks like some sort of toxic sludge instead of water:

View attachment 4335

Oddly, I've discovered that playing using my Oculus Rift results in the purple color... if I play on a monitor it looks opaque grey:

View attachment 4336

Does anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong?

Probably something to do with the fact you are not using a normal map in the normal map slots:

I'd use a flat normal map (something like 128 red, 128 green, 255 blue) in those slots to see what happens, though obviously to get the best effect you will want to make an actual normal map.

 

[quetillo]

What kseditor do you use for the water, I put the stFlow and it does not start in the kseditor V6, thanks

 

[Johnr777]

What kseditor do you use for the water, I put the stFlow and it does not start in the kseditor V6, thanks

The kseditor from the SDK.

Where did you put the stflow shader?

 

[quetillo]

Thanks for answering, I have the kseditor that comes inside the assetto game and I downloaded the new kseditorV6, but it won't let me open it, it only works with the kseditor that comes in assetto.

 

[Johnr777]

Thanks for answering, I have the kseditor that comes inside the assetto game and I downloaded the new kseditorV6, but it won't let me open it, it only works with the kseditor that comes in assetto.

The modded editor is outdated. You should use the one in the SDK

 

[quetillo]

If I have it in the original sdk, the one that comes in the game, there is if it works for me, but in the sdk page the new one does not work, thanks I will continue with this

 

[fughettaboutit]

if you want to use stFlow shader in SDK editor you have to copy it in its folder too, its like an AC-install on its own, it does NOT know about stuff you installed to the AC folder itself, i think this is described on stFlow download page too on RD

 

[fughettaboutit]

Ooh sorry, stFlow install has its own SDK folder, so forget what i wrote above, it should work just like this.

But dont just unpack, open archive, go into "stFlow" folder, and put both folders from image below into ac-folder. This does not apply when you install per MOD folder with jsgme and have unpacked the archive "stFlow_1.0.7z" into MOD folder.

If you moved your editor folder somewhere else, this might be a reason too.

 

[fughettaboutit]

and yes, unfortunately kseditorV6 does not work with stFlow shader, i did encounter that too

 

[quetillo]

Thanks, it's already solved, I have to use the stream's ksd

 

[quetillo]

I can't make that texture, because if I take a texture of a car and put it it works for me

 

[Rob Pawn]

Hallo. I have 2 problems to get the transparency to work. Help would be much appreciated!

First i wonder how to apply the shader in SDK and then change it. I do not see an apply button.

Second i think i export the texture wrong in GIMP already. I do not see the value 8.8.8.8 and i only can choose sRGB. The opacity in Gimp i set to 60% and get a light grey in alpha channel like Johnr777 shared with us. *Picture (Deckkraft = Opacity)

 

[Rob Pawn]

I found my mistake. I did not applied the opacity in Gimp! Flatten all layers (even there was just one) fixed the problem! Otherwise the opacity/transparency was just gone after exporting. Also i have to use eAlphaTest instead of AlphaBlend and i get a nice dark window! perfect.