PLUTO16
Charter Member
p3d 4.4 & PBR, a quick guide from a painter's point of view.
Hi all,
As some of you know I'm a painter since 20 years or something like that, and now,with P3D 4.4 there is this "PBR headache" as somebody called in on FS developer forum.
Ok,like on a transmission about food and cooking,you can obtain the same result with different approaches.
Basically the only thing you must have is a .MDL "PBR ready" (so if you have P3D 4.4 you can play with default F-16)
Once you get it,the song looks like that:
BEFORE PBR:
You had your diffuse,specular and bump.
Your "metalness" was normally driven by the diffuse's alpha channel.
Your "glossiness" was driven by the specular,and it's transparency by it's alpha.
Needless to say,your bump mapping was obtained with nvidia filters for normal map.
Ok,now PBR.
3 new names:
"Albedo"
"Metallic"
"Normal"
But how I have to paint them? Let's see them closer.
Albedo:
Is basically your old diffuse. No more,but less,because there is no more alpha channel to drive the model metalness.
Metallic:
Is the "main course" of you model,and you have to play witch channels to obtain effects of metalness and glossiness.
Let's divide what's what.
RED CHANNEL: it drives your METALNESS. Paint it black,no metal,paint it white,max metal effect.
GREEN CHANNEL: is you ambient occlusion,you can obtain it from you modeler,and apply on the channel. As before,black: no occlusion,white: max occlusion
BLUE CHANNEL: not used,keep it full black.
ALPHA CHANNEL: it drives your GLOSSINESS. As before, white: super glossy,black. no gloss.
Normal:
For a beginner's approach you can use your old "bump" without problems,simply rename it.
So basically the old parameters of alpha's diffuse and specular textures are merged together into the "metallic" DDS.
Now,the treatment for painter's headaches.
You can approach the painting in two ways: The first is to use a specific program (like substance painter,ecc) The second is to play with channels starting from your paintkits.
It's up to you,but if you are confident enough with the "old school" painting,you can obtain the same results in both ways.
Remenber that specific programs are quite interesting to use,but you need to setup the export parameters on the right way to match the channel requirements I wrote before.
I hope this helps you to understand better the new enviroment and please,If there are mistakes let me know,Im (like many of you) on the beginning of this new enviroment.
Cheers,
/Alessandro
Hi all,
As some of you know I'm a painter since 20 years or something like that, and now,with P3D 4.4 there is this "PBR headache" as somebody called in on FS developer forum.
Ok,like on a transmission about food and cooking,you can obtain the same result with different approaches.
Basically the only thing you must have is a .MDL "PBR ready" (so if you have P3D 4.4 you can play with default F-16)
Once you get it,the song looks like that:
BEFORE PBR:
You had your diffuse,specular and bump.
Your "metalness" was normally driven by the diffuse's alpha channel.
Your "glossiness" was driven by the specular,and it's transparency by it's alpha.
Needless to say,your bump mapping was obtained with nvidia filters for normal map.
Ok,now PBR.
3 new names:
"Albedo"
"Metallic"
"Normal"
But how I have to paint them? Let's see them closer.
Albedo:
Is basically your old diffuse. No more,but less,because there is no more alpha channel to drive the model metalness.
Metallic:
Is the "main course" of you model,and you have to play witch channels to obtain effects of metalness and glossiness.
Let's divide what's what.
RED CHANNEL: it drives your METALNESS. Paint it black,no metal,paint it white,max metal effect.
GREEN CHANNEL: is you ambient occlusion,you can obtain it from you modeler,and apply on the channel. As before,black: no occlusion,white: max occlusion
BLUE CHANNEL: not used,keep it full black.
ALPHA CHANNEL: it drives your GLOSSINESS. As before, white: super glossy,black. no gloss.
Normal:
For a beginner's approach you can use your old "bump" without problems,simply rename it.
So basically the old parameters of alpha's diffuse and specular textures are merged together into the "metallic" DDS.
Now,the treatment for painter's headaches.
You can approach the painting in two ways: The first is to use a specific program (like substance painter,ecc) The second is to play with channels starting from your paintkits.
It's up to you,but if you are confident enough with the "old school" painting,you can obtain the same results in both ways.
Remenber that specific programs are quite interesting to use,but you need to setup the export parameters on the right way to match the channel requirements I wrote before.
I hope this helps you to understand better the new enviroment and please,If there are mistakes let me know,Im (like many of you) on the beginning of this new enviroment.
Cheers,
/Alessandro
