Painting with new material: "Region Alpha"

[Doug62]

I´m following the " How to paint a car with the new material system " guide (HERE)

At the end of PART2 it says : "If you have 6 regions, you need to copy the Alpha region in the PSD Alpha Channel, and then you need to save as DXT5 (Interpolated Alpha). BE SURE you are saving that specific Alpha Channel, instead the main Spec Map containing the Carbon Fiber bits, as we've set above."

I have only 4 (i´m not using the region 5), but in witch case "the region alpha" will be used? Is that used for the windows, windshield? If so i don´t understand the "process". Should i use the other PSD file called "AstonMartin_Vantage_GT3_windshieldout" and apply the process using only the "Region Alpha" layer?



I´m a bit lost (my bad english for sure

)

In advance thanks for your help.

 

[Phil Dufour]

@Doug62 is a bot lol

 

[Doug62]

Brought this over from the S397 Forum.
Could not answer it there, The baby girls at S397 have banned me for calling some off their work crap. If you keep repeating the same stupid thing over & over again and don't learn from the feedback your given, then you expect people to call you out on it.

So to the question.
You don't need to use the Alpha when the regions are under the 5. You just use the colored region for you carbon parts.
But in saying that I always use the Alpha and save both the livery and the region DXT5 (Interpolated Alpha). You must use the Alpha on the region DDS for that Region layer to work. I use this method on all me skins as the Livery and Region is on the same template so the carbon or plastic parts are usually common on every livery. Be aware that if you place a logo or paint what is usually carbon you'll need to also adjust both the Alpha and the region to get the correct layer affect on those areas.

Windows have no region filter. Alpha only.
("the region alpha" will be used? Is that used for the windows,)
No, Nothing from the region DDS has anything to do with the windows. There are 2 templates for the windows because 1 is for outside, 1 is for the inside.
They are different mainly in the Alpha channel layer. Outside, the Alpha is grey for the glass so you see it's there. Gives the glass depth but still has transparency.
The inside glass is usually Black Alpha. Black makes the glass 100% transparent. So you need to either use both template or do as I do and use 1 template for both. I change the Alpha and add a darker shading over the windows for the inside before saving to DXT5 (Interpolated Alpha) for both inner and outer windows

Hope this helps.

 

[Doug62]

Also, i´ve assigned the "black region" as explained in the guide but once in the showroom and the "local host" when i use "chrome" for "black" the chrome effect is assigned to the entire paint



When ever you make a change and save it to DDS you save over the open files in the teams folder. Before this change will take affect on the model whether it be online or off the car must be "reloaded" in the tune, showroom. This process loads the updated texture DDS and region json file to the Mas file. It's this Mas file that is used by the game to display the cars livery, Not the open files.
However, This does not apply to Windows, Driver, so on. These stay outside the Mas and only work as open files.

It all can get a little confusing at times.