No I think it's very interesting. I find that the 3D textures, and a lot of the glass shaders should probably be working or have some form of sensible replacement, but they don't work on the PC. I really don't know enough about this subject to make a sensible comment, but it does seem that Gearbox did a bit of a fail job, really.

Isn't the distance attenuation different on the PC, too?

where did you get those xbox shaders and bitmaps?

I imagine he got them from the Xbox version's map files.

And yeah there are a bunch of things that Gearbox decided to break for one reason or another. Pretty much all the Covenant shields - Jackal, stationary, the giant ones in the T&R's hangar - were changed because for whatever reason they got rid of the shader_transparent_generic. Lots of HUD stuff is broken too: the plasma overheat meter is supposed to be a gradient from blue to red (as seen in later Halo games) but that's not there... and of course the Sniper Rifle's angle ticks are horrifically broken as well.

I've tried several times over the years to use the PC-supported shader tags in some combination or other to replicate how they looked on the Xbox, with limited success. I haven't found a consistent means of applying the offset maps in a way that makes sense or looks like it should - sometimes you can get something decent (as I have with the Jackals) but some are really tricky (the Xbox's stationary shield has some distortion going on that I don't think we could even begin to replicate).

How did the CMT approach to making the jackal shields look a bit like the xbox versions work?

I played for a few minutes with GIMP and the textures while looking at the Xbox version until it looked right-ish. My most recent foray into the Jackals (not yet released but will be when I unload the rest of the crap I'm sitting on) was I think fairly successful (though still wip for reasons of varying obviousness):



Basic shader layout is as follows:

-map 1: noise - multiply alpha and color
-map 2: noise - multiply alpha and color
-map 3: (modified) offset - add alpha and color
-map 4: colored-in base map - current alpha and color

A separate colored base is made for the blue and orange versions of the shield; Majors and Minors use a different gbxmodel which in turn references different versions of the shader. Additionally, both shaders reference a red version in the "extra layers" section. Finally, the blue/orange shaders are set to fade using a Biped function that scales with "recent shield damage", while the red shader fades with an identical inverse function. Thus, the shields flash (in actuality the shaders just fade in/out) when they take damage.

nvm i was thinking of halo 2
Edited by milkkookie on Jun 28, 2011 at 09:55 PM

hey can you teach me how to rip shaders, bitmaps from xbox maps.

Assuming you mean the map functions, I only know some of them. It might be beneficial if you could do some experimenting on your own and post the results in this thread though - I'm curious as to some of the stranger-sounding ones.

-current = use current map's pixels as base
-next map = (?) ignore current map
-multiply = rgb multiply to previous maps
-double-multiply = double rgb of previous maps and multiply with current (or do multiply followed by add... not entirely sure but I think the former makes more sense) (practically, this is used when you want to multiply but not over-darken stuff)
-add = rgb addition to previous maps
-add-signed current = some sort of add that also bumps up contrast... not sure of its specifics
-add-signed next map = (?) no discernable difference with add signed current
-subtract current = rgb subtract from previous maps
-subtract next map = (?)
-blend current alpha = (?) do alpha-blend on previous maps
-blend current alpha-inverse = (?) do alpha-blend with inverted alpha
-blend next map alpha = (?)
-blend next map alpha-inverse = (?)

I can also say that I suspect several of the framebuffer blend functions are broken... but here's what they *should* be:

-alpha blend: standard drawing with transparency over background
-multiply: rgb multiply with background (I strongly suspect this is broken)
-double multiply: double background then multiply
-add: rgb add to background
-subtract: rgb subtract from background
-component min: select minimum rgb components between shader and background (I strongly suspect this is broken)
-component max: select maximum rgb components between shader and background
-alpha-multiply add: multiply rgb with alpha, then add to background

I considered myself fairly intelligent until I tried to work out what was going on. Too many shaders and blending types for poor little Diaboy. Looks good though; I'm impressed! You've already showed gearbox up somewhat. I am still trying to work out how decals work... ._.