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?
Did some testing on this shader. I found out that it does work when you have the normal tab checked in the influence panel in Blender. The big question remains...should I check that button? I do have a nice sheen on the stainless steel highway light pole. More coming soon.
Where do you see the normal tab/check box? I use Blender 5. Slot 2, normal map can be just a placeholder empty normal map with low resolution. Slot 3 is just a placeholder, so you can select any texture here.
This is in the texture / influence tab in Blender 2.79. I unchecked color and turned on normal button for the normal texture in the second slot. I don't know if it actually doing anything besides turning off the normal texture showing up in the render.. The Blender export seems to work fine with or without it. It could just be settings for the blender render for all I know.
