Shaders for Idiots

[CortoCG]

Open the .shader file with notepad and edit the path at will. The only problem is, if the file is not in the new path your enter, then the shader will fail.

 

The game reads all the .shader files and loads them, checks which effects are applied to which textures. Just follow the naming conventions.

[Codja X]

Also, in shaderEd, click on the sourcesafe menu, go to configure and make sure that the paths to your base and shader directories are correct.

 

As I mentioned earlier - it's all trial and error and for the most part, a pain in the arse.

[Jedi_Vogel]

Ok this is what I have now I've manually culled stuff

 

textures/yavinfort/yf_marble2
{
qer_editorimage	textures/spares/yf_marble2
q3map_nolightmap
q3map_onlyvertexlighting
cull	twosided
}

 

Anything abnormal there before I start seriously playing around with it?

[CortoCG]

Actually none of us is using Sourcesafe, so no need to care about it, apart from the annoying message that pops up everytime you execute shadered2.

Raven must've use Sourcesafe so developers could check in and check out the shader files and keep it neat and updated, cuz Raven's shaders files are really big.

[Codja X]

Originally posted by Jedi_Vogel

 

textures/yavinfort/yf_marble2
{
qer_editorimage	textures/spares/yf_marble2
q3map_nolightmap
q3map_onlyvertexlighting
cull	twosided
}

 

 

You may want to get rid of the q3map_nolightmap and the q3map_onlyvertexlighting otherwise any brushes covered with this texture won't be lit properly i.e. the game will use vertex lighting on this shader and not the normal lightmap.

 

I recommended configuring the sourcesafe just to rule out any path based problems. I don't really know how much effect it has or not, but better safe than sorry

[CortoCG]

Originally posted by Jedi_Vogel

Ok this is what I have now I've manually culled stuff

 

textures/yavinfort/yf_marble2
{
qer_editorimage	textures/spares/yf_marble2
q3map_nolightmap
q3map_onlyvertexlighting
cull	twosided
}

 

Anything abnormal there before I start seriously playing around with it?

 

Yeah, something is really wrong. The path for the texture is not the same in both places. One is in /yavinfort and the other (the first shader stage) in /spares. Be extra carefull with that, or it will haunt you, hehe.

[Jedi_Vogel]

OK, now I'm set up MAYBE just MAYBE the Shader Manual can make sense and using ShaderEd I can come up with some stuff to help me learn it.

 

Thank you for your patience, no doubt I'll have questions for you in the near future...

 

Sometime after my move back to England :/

 

[edit] And I've updated the path and moved the image to the yavinfort folder

[Codja X]

Corto is right - what you should do when creating new assets is to make your shader name, textures directory and map name the same.

 

Rename then textures/spares directory to textures/yavinfort and make sure you update the shader to reflect this.

 

The shader should then look like:

textures/yavinfort/yf_marble2

{

qer_editorimage textures/yavinfort/yf_marble2

}

 

This is your bog standard shader and is a good base to continue from.

 

[Edit] Got there before me.

 

Phew, got there in the end. Just have a fiddle around with it now and have a look at other shaders - just generally experiment with them. If you want a nice scrolling shader, you'll have to use tcmod, but find a scrolling shader 1st, open that in shadered and see how it's done.

 

With practice and patience you'll eventually learn the ropes.

[Jedi_Vogel]

Thanks Codja, much appreciated. I'll start future shaders by hand and then see what ShaderEd can do for me, while I learn to do it by hand...

 

It's still quite scary though lol

 

Gotta go find a shader which does what I'm looking for (there's a thread around here somewhere) and see HOW it's done but then tone it down.

 

Tchuß

[lauser]

Originally posted by Jedi_Vogel

[edit] Woah...ShaderEd is slightly...um...overwhelming *heads to google for ShaderEd tutorial as it doesn't have help file*

 

This is exactly why I started a ShaderED tutorial thread here. Because as I stated I did a great deal of searching to no avail. So now when people type in ShaderED2 into Google, this forum will pop up with some answers. Because there are MANY more games that use the same type of shaders we use for JK.

 

Now as far as specific things that the shader does, only a few will show up in shaderED. For instance the ground shaders and wall shaders will not show animations because they are not animated...

 

I will keep an eye out for that readme though.

[lukeskywalker1]

Im just learning to understand shaders, like skys, a little blending, and q3map2_material I think i get surfaceparm too...

 

How do you set up ShaderEd? I try to add a new texture.. but, it wont let me.

[Jedi_Vogel]

Try what I did, open an existing shader, save it as something different, delete what you don't want THEN you should be able to add it.

 

Alternatively, do it by hand