[SP 0-6-0]

Afternoon everyone, I have a couple of questions for the dev team working on ORTS?

First up, How does ORTS handle adding shine to models and environment maps? My link


Second, We all know MSTS can not handle true silver, gold, brass, or copper colors. This has been a pita for years when trying to replicate silver fluted passenger car textures. Can and will ORTS graphics engine be able to handle this type of colors better than MSTS ever could?

Robert

[James Ross]

SP 0-6-0, on 30 December 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

First up, How does ORTS handle adding shine to models and environment maps? My link

We don't currently support the "GlossMap" shader or environment maps.

SP 0-6-0, on 30 December 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

Second, We all know MSTS can not handle true silver, gold, brass, or copper colors. This has been a pita for years when trying to replicate silver fluted passenger car textures. Can and will ORTS graphics engine be able to handle this type of colors better than MSTS ever could?

Depends what you mean; at present, we can only display the materials defined in MSTS (except GlossMap as noted above) but we show the full 32bit colour range (MSTS was limited to 16bit I believe). In the future we should be able to display more, perhaps by giving direct control of certain parameters to the modeller, or by providing new types of shader for metallic materials and so on. Nothing's set in stone here - it's not even been discussed that much - so feel free to explain how you would like to define it.

[Genma Saotome]

SP 0-6-0, on 30 December 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

Second, We all know MSTS can not handle true silver, gold, brass, or copper colors. This has been a pita for years when trying to replicate silver fluted passenger car textures. Can and will ORTS graphics engine be able to handle this type of colors better than MSTS ever could?

Robert

It';s not MSTS... it's the RGB 32 bit standard -- 256 gradations of color for red, green, and blue. Multiply 256 x 256 x 256 and you get a very large number which allows for a whole lot of colors but guess what: NONE of them represent metallic colors. NO PC can represent metallic colors using RGB.

I don't know for sure but I would not be the least bit surprised if you needed a 64 bit color standard to get metallic colors done properly. And AFAIK, nobody is talking about increasing RGB to 64 bits.

[Jovet]

The problem is that "metallic" isn't a color. It's a refraction and sheen domain.

I've made textures that give a decent approximation to aluminum and brass. But it helps if you squint... because things like metals and opals are not a single color. They're a bunch of colors, at different times, and different angles. Water is the exact same way, and its surface can be even more reflective than metal, and its "point color" can vary even when the camera doesn't move (because the water surface is moving).

[Lindsayts]

Rememeber also that any kind of "shiny" surface is more or less reflective so some of the colouring is comming from its surroundings, this means it requires some kind of refection mapping to achieve the effect, and this WILL require a good deal of steam.

Rememeber reality is VERY VERY VERY difficult to simulate, there are somethings that will never be able to be done in a realtime game running on a desktop machine.

Lindsay

[NF1-800]

Sorry to bump this one in, but instead of opening a new thread i believe it is fine asking here since it's the same thing i am interested in.
Are there any chances to enable the GlossMap shader? I am aware of the fact that not many models were made using this method but the thing is that i am one of those users that play with them. Best examples come from russian rolling stock, which i use often. The main reason i beg for enabling this is for the wheel reflections. I bring my apologies if i am asking too much. Thanks in advance.

[SP 0-6-0]

I agree.

Robert