this I guess :
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$blendmodulatetexture
with some falloff parameter.
Hard to discribe only with words, but it's for a terrain splatting in some black and white comic style (only hatches), so i want 2 textures to overlay on a short distance while staying sharp, no gray shades.
It looks fairly simple and isn't based on a heightmap/normal map like recent games popped up with.

The Valve example is indeed using a heightmap, that's what their green channel is. Doesn't have to be a strict height though, just has to look good as you "threshold" up through the values, so a tightened heightmap works pretty well. You combine it either with vertex color, or another bitmap (use 3d paint). It's a really great technique. I added some more links about it on the wiki.

3Point shader is really awesome BTW. Great job guys.

I f*cking LOVE this shader!

No more messing around between different programs just to find you've got texture errors here and there.

Where did the Donovan (Darkstalkers/Vampire Savior) model come from? I've got a lot of game models but this guy eludes me! Lol, everythings twice as impressive with a 95 LTJ Bukem mix in the background!

Originally Posted by perna

Soft Shadows, depth of field and Ambient Occlusion in the realtime viewport.

Originally Posted by perna

Miscellaneous bugfixes.

For advanced users: The .fx file contains a number of toggles under the "Shader Settings" section, including soft/area shadow enable, double-sided rendering, gamma handling and more. Please note that these are entirely unsupported.

3ds soft shadows are not mature to the point where we will officially support them.

We strongly recommend against using double-sided rendering. In the majority of cases you get better efficiency and visual quality out of manually duplicating the polygons. It is a common misconception that the number of rendered triangles stays the same when turning off culling. It does not stay the same, it is effectively doubled.

These two anouncements confuse me. The first one anounces soft shadows as an update, then the second say you dont support it. Are is the second one refering to something different or you don't support the softshadows at all?

It just means they're in there if you want to mess with them, but they're not an official feature.

3Point Shader is really useful for game making.

Is the Quality-Normals Modifier necessary after editing your .INI file in Max 2012?

Also, are there any quick video series to go over 3Point like with Xoliul 2.0?

The INI settings SOMETIMES do work, but for most people, not.

So the Quality-Modifiers is kinda like the silver bullet for their custom solution.

Hi every1, i dont have the time to search for all this thread to check for anything about alphas since i am very tight on time,and i am sorry about that,still if someone could help i appreciate, i am using 3point shader pro trying to activate my alpha i added an alpha to my diffuse and activated opacity and it only turned the borders the same color of my background then i activated Test and it worked with the problem that my outer rim rim is pixelated.

does anyone knows why? thanks.

got a quick question about alphas in 3point shader, say im making leafs for a tree in the viewport if i put these leafs over each other using the diffuse alpha option in 3point the plane that has an alpha blocks/obscures the plane behind it is there an option or way to get around this issue.

when making a tree this really gets in the way as i can see real time how the leafs are being put together.

Originally Posted by ae.

got a quick question about alphas in 3point shader, say im making leafs for a tree in the viewport if i put these leafs over each other using the diffuse alpha option in 3point the plane that has an alpha blocks/obscures the plane behind it is there an option or way to get around this issue.

when making a tree this really gets in the way as i can see real time how the leafs are being put together.

As far as I know 3pshader doesn't do anything special with alphas, so its just default max behavior. Whatever sort of blending/ordering(or lack thereof) that max does is what you get.

If you can use "alpha test" that will solve this problem, not sure if 3ps has this option though. Some other options here
http://wiki.polycount.com/Transparen...rting_Problems

Fixed the issue by just switching to Max's default material ball for the leafs, couldn't seem to actually fix the issue with 3point though

I don't have the shader here to check, but sounds like there's a "test" button to press in the UI.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showp...&postcount=575

Originally Posted by ae.

Fixed the issue by just switching to Max's default material ball for the leafs, couldn't seem to actually fix the issue with 3point though

3pshader and max material use the exact same sorting and should show the exact same artifacts. Would appreciate if you could post a screenshot comparing the two so it's clear exactly what the problem is.

Ber: That's an alpha sorting issue, same as ae's having. 3PShader just renders the material, the sorting will have to be done manually or by max

Hi Guys,

I'm a shader newb trying to figure out how to use the lite version of this, I read through the first 20 pages of this thread but there doesn't seem to be anything for non super genius users and the lite page on the website doesn't have any useful information at all about how to actually use it.

it's installed fine in my max 2011, I've got the long list of lite settings, but when I put a diffuse map into the diffuseMap channel, nothing happens it just keeps showing my model as a shiny gray dude in the viewport?

screenie:

lol, free laugh at the newb award for the person who says it first.

yeah try and check the diffuse map tick box where it says UseDiffuseMap.
self explanatory I would have thought

little things are easy to miss when you're under pressure...

I'm still finding it very hard to control the end result, from what I read, the pro version makes it a lot easier to work with yeah?

Since the Pro version has checkboxes too, all they did was compartmentalize them in a neat fashion to make them 'easier' to find and manage, not make it 'easier' to make nice looking shader, since the end result really depends on the model and user.

I mean yeah, the Pro version is cool and nice and awesome, and, and, and...but if you're under pressure and forgot to tick the box, I would suggest reading up on the FAQ before anything else.

well, I think the model is fine, the user could be a problem though ;)

thanks for the help guys, love the avatar ace...

ultramedia, the full version automates and simplifies, eliminating unnecessary manual steps. It still is definitely made for people who want to go hard-core into material creation, but can be used for simple setups as well (just ignore the right-hand column of parameters)

If you just want a quick and simple result you can use the UI for the Lite version (shown below)

I'm having troubles, my TGA normal map wont update at all. I saw that someone had that issue earlier, but your solution confuses the hell out of me.
Page 31 "bug within max 2012, apply your maps to a regular shader in the material editor and they will be updated in the 3point shader as they should"

Help please?

Originally Posted by BenHenry

I'm having troubles, my TGA normal map wont update at all. I saw that someone had that issue earlier, but your solution confuses the hell out of me.
Page 31 "bug within max 2012, apply your maps to a regular shader in the material editor and they will be updated in the 3point shader as they should"

Help please?

Hi Ben. Whatever the cause is of that problem, it's a 3ds Max bug and not related to 3PShader. Make sure you have the most recent service pack/hotfix for max.

The solution you quoted seems straight-forward: To force map updates, apply that map to a standard 3ds material.

Good luck!