Composite Maps - Car Decals Problem

[Aldaryn]

Only one decal shows up in the viewport, or in the render?
Max older than 5.0 (as far as I know) can't display multiple textures (use aplhas) in the viewport. (But renders them correctly)

If you're using Max 5.0 or newer, and the problem is with the viewport display, the solution could be to push the "Show map in viewport" button in the root of the material, not in the bitmap, or other map properties level. (This will display all diffuse textures with alphas, and will display the material with the opacity map - if there is one)

If you set up the map channels right, and mask every texture (maybe not masking the highes one in the composite map hierarchy) Max should render them out as mapped.

A quick solution would be to composite the decals in an image edittor, and use them as only one texmap.

[EricCartman]

It doesn't show them in render...

I mean... I have map 1, 2 and 3 and it always shows only the bottom one... like 3rd if I have 3, 2nd if I have 2.

[EricCartman]

Here is a screenshot.

I can get them to show up, if I lower the Amount spinner, but if I have them all set at 100, I get only the bottom one.

I just saw that I am using a composite meterial and not composite map. Would that make a difference?

http://www.crystalmadness.com/images/test.gif

[EricCartman]

Yep.. that was it... me a dumbass! :)

[sam]

Yea it makes a difference. Use the composite map; it's ideally suited for applying decals. The composite material is more of an advanced mixer of whole materials and not really for laying maps on top of each other.

[EricCartman]

Yeah... what I was thinking is, I could use Composite material to combine Brazil Car Paint and Decals. I would use Car Paint as base material and put Decals Composite Map in Map Slot 1.

Would that work?

[Aldaryn]

The composite materail is uset to layer material above each other with 3 diferend layering methods you can chose, A, S, and M, adittive, subtractive, and mix. And the calculation is based on the opacity of the maps.

You could just create the Carpaint shader, create the decals shader, wtih the composite map in its diffuse slot to composite the needed decals together; and finally use the blend shader to blend the carpaint and the decals shader with a map, and this map should be a composite map too composited out from the alphas (Or alpha masks) of the decals.

Still compositing the decals in e.g photoshop, and using it as one layer is much more easier.
Or then the mapping would be overkill? :)

[EricCartman]

True... I am just testing out some options... This is my first car I ever modeled and my 6th model period. LOL

Here is the pic... These textures were done with UVW Unwrap method.

http://www.crystalmadness.com/images/merc_tex.jpg

[Aldaryn]

Pretty good model for a "first car", keep it up! :thumbsup:

[EricCartman]

You could just create the Carpaint shader, create the decals shader, wtih the composite map in its diffuse slot to composite the needed decals together; and finally use the blend shader to blend the carpaint and the decals shader with a map, and this map should be a composite map too composited out from the alphas (Or alpha masks) of the decals.

I did this and it works great :)

I have little trouble coz a map is showing on both sides of the car. How can I avoid this?

[Aldaryn]

I did this and it works great
I'm really glad it worked! :)

The problem is caused by the mapping: if you assing eg. a planar UVW map, it will map every face coverd by it througout the whole scene.
To have separate decals on each side, you could just divide the car into several MatID zones:

For example each side has its own MaterialID (1, 2) so you can apply a different shader to it:
Just use a Multy/Sub Object material collection to collect all your decal shader, (eg.: Front decals, top decals, left side decals, ...) But this is again a bit overkill. Needs lots' o work.

Maybe you also just could assign the mappings in SubObject level (Only the necessary faces selected)

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