@Madman - Tex question (alpha layera)

U seem to have fallen off the edge of the earth at the moment madman, we havent been hearing from you in awhile, but here's a new challenge for you

In most case's, GP4 uses the alpha layers for reflections and the control of them. But in some special cases's on some objects, such as the "z_cockpit_visor" layer on the carshapes, the alpha layer controls reflections.

It is the object which chooses whether the alpha layer contorls reflections or not - as shown by the z_cockpit_visor alyer because anything on that layer can be made transaprent.

What we ask is this - can we open the /gp4 shape files and someone change the attributes that says that the alpha layer will be transparent/reflections?

We want to use a object on the cockpit shape to be able to control transparecy for a good effect for the GT cars. Is this possible? to change the objects attributes so we can use the alpha layer to control transaprecny instead?




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

I think that doesn't the alpha channel's work because we have a transparent side-wing on front-wing-fin on FW25 model at the very beginning, but I hadn't noticed it in GP4.
However,the cockpit visor is transparent in ZModeler so think that can be set with carshape file.



F1GrandPrix.net - 1999 - 2003 Viper F1 Studio
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I will drive flat out all the time. I love racing." - Gilles Villeneuve

Yep, It's the next thing i will work on with 3D Editor : Material properties.
I already made some tests, being able to have a full transparent helmet for exemple but i still didn't find the exact way GP4 is describing material, so i have to keep the work on that.

U seem to have fallen off the edge of the earth at the moment madman

i tought it was round :|

lol Chris

Well if anyone can find away to get some of the cockpit materials to use alpha layers as transarencies rules me and sasjag wud be pretty happy cos w ehave some great ideas




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

Where is Madman?



Keep your distance

to moderator:
sorry i should commented to this very old thread.

to ellis:
i learn a bit in .gp4 format and i found an interesting thing that reflections (and other mappings) also affect with specific texture coordinate (.gp4 file store 8 tex-coords, but sometimes not all used). but i'm not sure this technique applied to all car shapes because i've just currently played with coulthard's car shape.

.gp4 file format store several optional "sections" assigned to each material name as follows: (hex number is section codes)

(0x10) emmisive/ambient color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x06) diffuse color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x08) specular color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x27) illumination for emissive -> float RGB (opt)
(0x0D) lights power -> float min/max (opt)
(0x0E) TRANSPARENCY -> float level value (opt) <--- might interesting you
(0x26) self illumination -> float bool (opt)
(0x2B) two-sided -> unsigned 32-bit integer as bool (opt)
(0x2A) texture clamps -> array of 9 unsigned 32-bit integer as bool (opt)

notes;
texture clamps actually used only at first 8 entries. simergy coders accidentally writes 9 entries 'coz of zero-based index array.

"layer" term is not actually correct in this matter, because DirectX gives possibilities to combine alpha part on texture color as used into many effects such as texture blending, transparent, or even used as environment mapping or bump mapping blend in multi-textures render stages. Sometimes, texture color has different purpose and used separately with material colors (ambient, diffuse, etc) but sometimes can be combined to produce some effects.

if you ask me whenever we can modify how gp4 handles transparent and reflection in texture rendering, i need to take a look into the gp4 codes itself.

but if you known better into .gp4 file format, simply be playing with value in transparency section (and other sections whenever you'd like).


gr88ts,
madman

---

In reality, doesn't matter who's right but most important is who's left.

hmm..i have nfi what u just sed, so Ellis can tell me later, but thnx man :D good to have ya back

(btw ellis is the moderator)



Sim

---

All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

Very great Madman ! As usual, i don't know how you can get so much information from the files, as i work on .gp4 files since so many time and never be able to put a name on those datas so precisely...

Anyhow i will try this and add them to 3D Editor as soon as possible.

intersting! I will play with the transparency effects later then, if they are in the GP$ file, then all of the objects must have these "options" then? One for each object in the file?




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

Well, it will be more complex because those datas are not stored for each object... : /

oooo, right, makes life a bit harder then!




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

ahum.

those data that i mentioned above is material data. object data just hold information such as global pos, center axis, matrix identity transform, bounding-box/collision info, etc. beware not all data are always available depend on header signature (indicated by 'M_07' for dx7 and so on). also take precausion because not all information stored on .gp4 file are used by gp4.

to ellis;
if you want to implement transparent texture, you can naming such polygon as 'z_cockpit_visor' object group name. please note this is only useful to add flat transparent polygon (e.g. glasses), so you just need to remap texture coords into small texture (e.g. 8x8). think this is a quick trick. i also was learn that .gp4 file format is not so customizable. some parameters are bypassed by gp4 codes. i'm still trying to find the best ways to implement transparent texture into .gp4 file shape format.

by the way, maybe you interesting this issue since you worked with mesh shapes and textures. i've been discuss with james knoop (author of jam editor and tex editor) about implementing protected .tex file format. he plan to apply such protection scheme into his tools. the protection is not strong enough but quite powerful to 'fool' some old tex editors/converters. perhaps dUmBasS already know about this (i saw his name in james's website).

i've plan to introduce stronger .tex file protection scheme (using digital signed and encrypted). maybe you have feedback about .tex file format, just let me know.


ch88rs,
madman

madman, unfortuantly we need to make a cockpit object transparent, z_cockpit_visor is a car object




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

Hey Madman, you are really back! And I am sure that your head is getting better, nice to see your posts, many details, well explaned, very good, I see that the amazing GP4 tweaker with 2003 qualifying rules will be ready soon!

I am very glad to see you well.



Keep your distance

To Madman: Do you mean that M_04, M_05 and M_07 are here to handle differences between Directx version ? Might explain those numbers, that's right

One day i will have to ask you how you can find exact names of every datas, cause it's amazing me. I was able to well separate them, but wasn't able to give them a name without huge amount of trial and errors in GP4...It seems so easy the way you do it

Protected .tex files ? what for ? author's property respect ?

to ellis;
uh, sorry i miss-read something on your post. i'll post the results asap whenever i found some ways to make transparent texture on cockpit shapes.

to paulo ricardo;
thanks. my head still a little bit 'buggy' but getting better. hope no more major bugs on my head in few days ahead.

to lo2k;
the 'M_??' flag is used to indicating .gp4 file has store some features on specific dx version. for example, billboard info in object data is used whenever .gp4 file are intended for dx7 and above and has additional two values after properties flags data. here the logic:

--- code ---
read dwPropflags
if dxver >= 7 then
begin
read dwBillboardData1
read dwBillboardData2
end
--- code ---

as you can see, 'm_??' flag is not used as supported dx version in .gp4 file, but only inform the .gp4 loader the way specific data stored. this is necessary because .gp4 file is designed as dynamic structured data (mean must be read byte by byte, not block by block).

ps;
to anyone who don'y know the 'billboard' term, it is a technique to render a 2d object as 3d object virtually. first introduced in dx7 and commonly used for objects such as trees, grasses, etc. this technique giving fast and cheap performances during render stages.


ch88rs,
madman

to lo2k;
i forgot about your protected .tex file question.
yes, it is useful to protect car shapes+textures authoring. james (or someone, i forgot) said he need to protect such files to avoid somebody change a little things and claimed as their works.

actually this is a james's project. i've just helped him to implement .tex and .gp4 loader routines to recognize a protected files.


ch88rs,
madman

id say its wrong to close the tex files
u dont get much livery stealing these days the major problems are the shapes
what if u whant to do a fantasy or leauge car? u have to beg the autor to send u a opend tex file????

i think the idea would be to start from scratch, which could put beginners back if not off.
oh well, i guess if they can be locked, they will be.



____
Tony