Page 1 of 1

What should my specular map look like?

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:57 pm
by Anteater
(Yet another dumb question about bumpmapping)

What should my specular map for this texture look like? This is the BM0 of it, and the BMB of it is just a black and white version of it. But what should the specular map look like?

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:02 pm
by Kamazy
Is that a brick wall?
The speculat map is just black and white.
Black = No light
White = Light
And all the grays between the two.
I'm not sure what that is to tell you what the map should look like.

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:22 am
by GD1
i assume your trying to use EMBM?

if so, leave the specular out for level geometry. in other words, just use the bm0_ and bmb_ maps for it.

the specular map is more of a lightmap than anything. i've used it before to cause certain parts of my actors to glow. basically, the engine takes the color from the specular map and uses it to light the object per-pixel. but this is static lighting, not dynamic, meaning this is the lighting the object will always recieve whether it is in the light or dark. very unrealistic in most cases.

you only need a specular map if you are using EMBM on an actor. the engine gives you the option to leave it out for level geometry. if you choose to leave it out, you will get real-time lighting based on the level's lighting info.