Official Guide: VRage Render restriction guide for modders

@Drui, Emissivites will be supported up to index 4 only?
or that just pattern sample?

 

Emissives are already hardcoded in the gamelogic. Modded blocks can't use those, otherwise the existing block gamelogic affects them.
I pushed for SetEmissiveParts in the ModAPI specifically for this.

If the reason is because of some performance hit for allowing any material to be emissive, then please give us a way to tell the game which materials of ours can be emissive. That keeps the performance while still allowing customization. This is a major form of visual feedback for mods.

If not, my visual revamp of the Stargate mod is officially dead.

The DHD and gate lightup shown in this video will no longer be possible:

 

@Cendos, but what about old support of emmisive, like name material like Emissive400, and you can control it from mod.
this is gone?

cuz i will need that in my future mod, and if it removed i will not even start to play with that.

 

No love for the 256x256, 128x128, 64x64 and 8x8? Why?

Well, there goes that option of optimization of mod size, I guess... Hello 4096x4096 waste of space while it is just a flat color fill that very well could be 8x8 with no impact on the visuals...

 

i guess thats the point now where i quit modding for SE completely

 

Wouldn't a solid color texture of any size just compress into "This pixel is red. So are the next 16 million."?

 

"the only supported resolutions for future will be 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048, 4096x4096"
Does this limitation only apply to models, or will our UI elements (Such as block icons) need to be 512 now? (Currently I use 128x128)

"colorMetal textures (_cm) need to be in the following format: BC7_UNORM_SRGB"
How do I set this format? Is this something done when using the Nvidia .dds Format exporter for photoshop, or something set elsewhere? Either way, how does one chose this 'format'?

 

@Cendos, i found that lines in Environment:

i need just add materian into that list and i can use it via GetEmissive('MyMaterial'), as usual?
right?

then we only need to make that list mergable, may be move it to separate file?

 

I tried using the ChangeableMaterials item in the environment.sbc, and it didn't work.

My materials in the model XML match what is under MaterialName.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Definitions xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Definition xsi:type="EnvironmentDefinition">
    <Id>
      <TypeId>EnvironmentDefinition</TypeId>
      <SubtypeId>Stargate</SubtypeId>
    </Id>
    <MaterialsSettings>
      <Data>
      </Data>
      <ChangeableMaterials>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron1</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron2</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron3</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron4</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron5</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron6</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron7</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron8</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>Chevron9</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
        <!-- DHD -->
        <ChangeableMaterial>
          <MaterialName>DialButton</MaterialName>
        </ChangeableMaterial>
      </ChangeableMaterials>
    </MaterialsSettings>
  </Definition>
</Definitions>

EDIT: I even tried changing the Subtype to 'Default' and added the stock ones, nothing. It's like it's not being read for mods.

 

I'd just like to say that I am really glad that you're actually handling sRGB correctly.

 

I see a lot of these warnings like these in VRageRender-DirectX11.log:

Code:

2016-10-27 11:09:19.870 - Thread:  22 ->        Asset C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\Mods\HydrogenCollector\Models\Cubes\Large\SolarHydrogenCollector.mwm tries to overrwrite material Emissive0 with different textures
2016-10-27 11:09:19.989 - Thread:  22 ->        Asset Models\Cubes\Small\HydrogenTank.mwm tries to overrwrite material Emissive4 with different textures
2016-10-27 11:09:20.265 - Thread:  22 ->        Asset Models\Cubes\Large\Camera.mwm tries to overrwrite material Emissive with different textures

Does this mean only one emissive name can be mapped to a unique texture?
This is going to be nightmare for setting those programmatically, if I ever get it working again.

 

gah man, looks like even default assets not adapted...

 

Luckily, for me, I just use vanilla textures atm..

Hey Sage, I feel your pain, it is a bitch to deal with .dds images. I got a lot of help starting out modding .dds here:
https://forum.keenswh.com/threads/dx11-dds-files-invalid-image-file-header.7375544/
https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTex/wiki/Texconv
https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTex
Also, hit-up Harag if you can, he is the master at this.

texconv is all command line. I hope you're comfortable working with command line. Anyway.

Here's an intro if not: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/command-prompt-how-use-basic-commands
You at least just need to know >cd/ change directory command to navigate to your texconv folder.

This is the command you will need to use to get what you want:
"~texconvdirectory~\texconv -f BC7_UNORM_SRGB -if TRIANGLE_DITHER_DIFFUSION -sepalpha DDS.dds"
note you can substitute any image file you want for DDS.dds, if you wanna use .tga or .tiff, what have you.
For funsies, you can even convert .dds to .tga or .tiff, and play with your textures outside of PS, then convert back to .dds afterward. It can be a very useful tool.

I think you're smart enough to figure out the rest. I just know how much "fun" it was getting used to changing file formats in command prompt. Hope I was of some help. Feel free to shout-out if you need anything else.
--- Automerge ---
Otherwise.. this doesn't look good for Phoenix.. and what's bad for Phoenix, should be bad for everyone!!
--- Automerge ---

Nooo your steel catwalk trapdoor is the best, so simple, so awesome. Why does Keen always have to drive away the best modders!? I know times are a changin', but damn!! :,(

 

Mexpex found this: Photshop users can use Intel's texture plugin (https://github.com/GameTechDev/Intel-Texture-Works-Plugin, binaries can be downloaded under "Releases")



Save these settings as presets like I did here. _add uses the same settings as _cm so I didn't include a preset for that.

Note that I have no idea how to make sure that what is saved as linear colorspace actually has color values in that colorspace. I don't use Photoshop.
--- Automerge ---
And in my opinion the guide's section on glass is inadequate:

• How is transparency controlled? Is this still done via TransparentMaterials.sbc? If yes, how does that work considering material names are now fixed?
• Does that mean each model can have only two alpha-blended materials? Texture-atlasing doesn't mix with texture-tiling.
  
• Does this interact with the normal PBR textures somehow?

 

@Harag The guide doesn't address modded glass or emissives at all really, it only indicates that we can only use predefined things, which is rather sad.

For emissive and glass materials to work they now need to be added to environment.sbc's material list but the material list is ignored in mods and the script class for those materials is prohibited so we can't add to it right now.

Glass now needs to be set in the material name which needs to match to the transparent material name. GlassMaterialCW/CCW no longer used (and GlassSmooth never worked).
Example from SDK:

Code:

	<Material Name="GlassInside">
		<Parameter Name="SpecularIntensity">30</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="SpecularPower">42</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorX">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorY">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorZ">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="Technique">GLASS</Parameter>
	</Material>
	<Material Name="GlassOutside">
		<Parameter Name="SpecularIntensity">30</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="SpecularPower">42</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorX">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorY">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="DiffuseColorZ">255</Parameter>
		<Parameter Name="Technique">GLASS</Parameter>
	</Material>

And since they're basically the same as before, it doesn't seem to support any special textures yet.

What gave you the idea it can only have 2 transparent materials per model ?

@Phoera nevermind that, I was replying to the above comment but misread the part with 2 materials so I edited it to a question

 

that one in guide.

 

You scared me there. Well, my speed mod still works anyway. Hopefully, it stays that way!!

 

GlassInside and GlassOutside are two materials. Other names are disallowed. Hence a maximum of two. But I might have misunderstood. That's why I'm saying the guide needs more information

 

Yeah nvm that, I needed to do a full game restart between tests since some things seem to persist.
It still ignores the materials part, I'm not the only one who tried adding to that list

 

Thanks, but I actually tried that already, it didn't work either.
There seems to be an issue where that information isn't loaded properly when they are in mods. They only work if you edit the vanilla sbc.

 

Hm, why put that information in Environment.sbc at all? Why not define a new flag for materials and set it via a new parameter in MwmBuilder's .xml? The file is ok as a migration-step but in my experience it's nearly always better to directly annotate the stuff that is to be affected. Those centralized files always become magnets for merge-conflicts (VCS or otherwise).

 

I second this.
I've been using this tool for a few months now, way better than nvidia texture tool (much better compression).
Only downside is you can no longer open DDS in PS. You can only save.
Luckily it only breaks 64-bit PS. So if I need to open a DDS in PS, I use the 32-bit version, then save as a TGA to open in 64-bit.
Rare, but once in a while you need it.