Simple question- What is the best way to simulate chrome parts? Like a bumper of a car? What shaders could I use to create that mirror effect?
TrainUberShader: 3 textures Slot 1= diffuse Slot 2 = normal map Slot 3= "aux" (R+G+B+A) which allows you to have 4 different maps in one texture; R= AO G= Emissive B= Reflection A= Specular or you can use TrainBumpSpecEnvMask Slot 1 diffuse with alpha (RGB+A); RGB= diffuse A = combined Spec/Reflection map Slot 2; placeholder texture, use anything. I always use HDRI in Substance Painter and add some fake reflection to the diffuse texture. Then I use the specular and reflection channels to create a metallic look. Values should be close to black which is 0, white is 1. https://the-art-of-rws.blogspot.com/2010/03/shaders-and-kuju-materials.html
One of the biggest problems I have with making these RGBA type maps is separating / packing the different channels. Is there an easy way to do this?
What software do you use? I use Photoshop, and it is quite simple to work with the different channels.
I use paint shop pro, which doesn't seem to do that at all. I also used Gimp that does deal with channels, but it's not an easy task. Any recommendations? I'm not opposed to buying some new tool/program, if it make the task easy.
Have you tried Photopea? Lets you open and edit images in your browser, looks like Photoshop. https://www.photopea.com/ Also check out Affinity 3 https://www.affinity.studio/
So I did a little more looking into paint shop pro. Apparently it does have a split RGB and combine RGB commands. This allows you to edit the channels however, I have no idea at this time how the alpha channel is added or removed or even edited. Photopea looks pretty easy to use. If I can't figure out the PSP, I'll move to that program.
I'm currently working on making a standard stainless steel highway light. I thought I'd test your shader recommendation. The first problem I'm having is that Blender (Briage) is telling me I need 3 textures or 3 slots needed. You mention a RGB with and alpha and a dummy texture. While the information here tells me I need the RGB with and alpha, it also tells me I need a normal map in the 2nd slot, and I assume a dummy texture in the third slot. My first question is...am I reading this right? Next question is when using a normal map, do I need to tell blender it's a normal map by checking the influence "normal" tab in blender?
