Hi Guys,

This may seem like a noobish question coming from someone who has made several maps and has been doing it for several years...

When I create a scenery pieces I always get issues with shaders - ie the tool prompt to select a shader to apply.

Ok, I'm trying to make a plate of glass, so the material name in max is barrier#% (transparent and double-sided) - I want the 'glass' to have a shimmering, energy type of effect - I've duplicated the jackal shield.shader_transparent_chicago_extended shader and renamed it to barrier.shader_transparent_chicago_extended and replaced 2 of the 4 stage maps with my own simple semi-transparent bitmap.

So I have everything set, but when I try to compile the model I always get the tool prompt to select a shader to apply. If I remove #% from the material name in max it compiles - I assume without those properties in the shader. Why is this and what is the correct (best practice) for creating a scenery piece like this.

Please, please do not attempt to answer my question with perhaps and maybes - I would rather someone answer with a definitive answer based on their experience if its all the same to you. ;)

You don't need to use the symbols for scenery/biped/vehicle models. The are only used for bsp and collision models.
Double sided can be done by checking a box in the shader_trasparent_chicago tag you are using and transparency can be changed by blending options in the tag or by altering your bitmap's alpha channel.

Thank you very much. Superb answers!