Turning a .jpg or .tga into a shader file...

[Darth_Drexx]

How do you convert a .jpg or .tga into a shader file? I tried opening it up in shaderEd but it wouldnt read it...thanx..

[Leslie Judge]

I can't say much about ShaderEd because I don't use it, but it is sure you don't have to convert a picture. A shader is a little code in a text file. You can make it with ShaderEd of course. Take a look in the assets0.pk3 in the shaders folder. There are lots of .shader files containing many little codes.

 

I use Notepad for shader editing, btw.

[wedge2211]

Don't think of a shader as a "converted" image file. A shader is it's own texture, that references an image file. The shader file itself only contains text code that gives the shader its properties. The best way to learn shaders is to look at the ones already out there and see what code is used for what effects in game.

[Emon]

Below is the definition of a shader from the Quake III Arena Shader Manual. In concept, it's the same for any software.

 

Shaders are short text scripts that define the properties of a surface as it appears and functions in a game world (or compatible editing tool). By convention, the documents that contain these scripts usually has the same name as the texture set which contains the textures being modified (e.g; base, hell, castle, etc,). Several specific script documents have also been created to handle special cases, like liquids, sky and special effects.

 

I highly suggest reading said manual:

 

http://qeradiant.com/manual/Q3AShader_Manual