All you have to do to dim the glow is to adjust the brightness of the image in photoshop (Image->Adjustments->Brightness/Contrast).

It is important to note that the glowmap has to be the color you want it to appear in-game and NOT white unless you want the glow itself to be white.

Here are two textures. The image to the left is the orginal texture and the second is the glowmap defining the areas that will glow in game. The third image is the glow effect in-game.



Notice that the glowmap is not as bright as the same area on the original texture. It was initially but in-game the results were too bright so I reduced the brightness of the image (the darker the image the less it glows) and as you can see effect is still striking.

Secondly notice that the glowmap is green to match the color in the original texture. I've found that using a white glowmap results in a white glow (gasp!) regardless of the color of the original texture which in this case would spoil the effect.

It is possible to fiddle with Ec values to adjust color and brightness but I find it easier to just add the desired color the glowmap itself and adjust the brightness of the image itself to determine the strength of the glow..



Edited by - PantherX on 4/18/2006 7:15:30 AM

Of course. Again, I have no clue as to why I never see such easy answers.

Thanks anyway. I'll try this out immediately.

Hmmm,

Ever notice that freelancer uses no 'separate' glow maps.. btw.. its not all about alpha channels either..

There are two ways to make a texture glow.. you can make a separate texture panel and map only the glows to it.. or you can make a whole texture glow and at the same time make it translucent.. you can also 'dial in' the level of illumination required.. this is where it get's tricky..

Following up on some suggestions and some work by Argh.. and applying some of the glow methods used in Freelancer..I re-discovered something that I found out long ago.. but as I said couldn't find the dimmer switch.. well I found it.... (this is sort of new)...
I believe that certain suffix's on texture panels in native freelancer files can also provide another method of glow mapping 'whole' textures.. without going into detail.. and if you look you will see what I mean.. Liberty uses.. *goes digging with utf* .. umm.... L_R_wnds_selfillum_256.tga.. (the selfillum is the key) and the material has a couple of extra nodes:

Et_flags - 64,0 (int array)
Et_name - L_R_wnds_selfillum_256.tga
Type - DcDtEt

Bretonia uses: texture_name-GS.tga (actually dds but who's counting).. I guess the others use something else, I havent looked ..

also you can use Ec as a float..

This is where it gets interesting,, and remember we are not just talking lit panels here.. what I believe is that the freelancer creators used several light switches in panels, (Et) however, because the lit areas were small they needed no dimmer switch..

to make a whole texture glow, retain its features - i.e will not wash out and still control the level of illumination, then this is what I did:

Using the archangel tex as as example (it has two 1024 x 1024 dtx1 panels and a small 128x128 panel for the glass (which I did not want to glow))

Material Library
archangel_9
Dt_flags - 64.0 (int array)
Dt_name - archangel_9.tga (really dds)(string)
Type - DcDt (more on this later)
Et_flags - 64,0 (int array)
Et_name - archangel_9-GS.tga(string)
Ec - Float

Ec values from:
0.950000
0.950000
0.950000
0.000000
to:
0.550000
0.550000
0.550000
0.000000

Seem to work best 950000 (95% lit) is the upper limit and is bright.. go to:

0.100000
0.100000
0.100000
0.000000

and its white or very washed out.. 550000 (55%) is very subtle.

This is the dimmer switch...examples follow

55%


95%


You'll notice in the above example that I have only used DCDt in type.. this still works the best I have found as you control the level of illumination externally somehow.
EcEt in (type) when used with Oc results in a totally transparent texture.. yet you can still be detected and destroyed.. external weapons etc.., are still displayed

Et = Emissive texture.. others work not mine..
Ec = Emissive control.. ? the dimmer switch? it appears so..
-GS = Glowing surface?
selfillum = .... seems to say something that needs no explanation

Oh and btw.. you CANNOT do this using the .mat file exporter.. the values must be added by hand using utf..*general shudder*.. lol

Harrier

The Ec value is simply Emissive Color.

The top 3 number groups represent the RGB values so if you wanted red you would enter:

1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000

So by reducing the values of all 3 you're effectively reducing the brightness thus your dimmer switch.

Regarding the self illuminated texutres there aren't any in the game...al the glows are done via alpha channels.

What you saw in the Liberty mat file (li_capships.mat in fact) is the alpha map texture used to define the glow for the L_R_wnds_256 material. The image to the left below is L_R_wnds_256.tga texture and the right is L_R_wnds_selfillum_256.tga which defines the glowiing area.



All textures in the mat files that define glows have the "illum" tag but it really doesn't make a difference. You could call it "cookies" and it wouldn't make a difference so long as you used the same name in the Et entry. You don't need the .tgas in the name either btw.

So to create self illuminated emissive texture all you're doing is using the diffuse texutre as the emissive texture as well thereby defining the the entire image as the area to glow and then using Ec to control its brightness. The 'type' entry should be DcDtEtEc though.

You could remove the Ec value altogether and create a second less bright image for the Et value and the results would be the same.

It's just a matter of preference.

However if you want to define multiple areas on a texture to glow with different levels of brightness the only option is to create the alpha map.





Edited by - PantherX on 4/20/2006 7:41:43 AM