Metallic Textures? (tl;dr at end)

[green]

Hey, so I'm trying to port an Overwatch model-- the Maestro skin for Sigma. I got everything so far-- but I'm having some issues with the textures.

This is how the model looks in-game. You see the metallic buttons, and such?

https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Overwatch-Maestro-Sigma-Skin.jpg

And this is what I've got so far (pardon the missing textures, I haven't converted those ones yet 😅).

https://imgur.com/a/QwKCsPW

I assume I'm gonna have to do something with the vmt. I tried playing around with phong, but nothing happened-- but I probably missed something, tbh. The valvesoftware page didn't really explain how to pull this off, or I missed it, if they did.

Here's my VMT. It's just a basic vmt right now.

"VertexlitGeneric"
{
	"$basetexture" "models/overwatch/maestro/facebody"
	"$bumpmap" "models/overwatch/maestro/facebody_bump"
}

And finally, here's what textures the decompiler coughed up from the game. Honestly, I don't know what half of them are for. Any insight there would be appreciated, too.

https://imgur.com/a/qRZzOSO

TL;DR: I want to give small parts of a texture a metallic appearance, but I don't know how. Any help or insight would be appreciated.

[anonymousgamer]

Overwatch uses PBR materials. PBR are tricky to port over to work in SFM - look up blueflytrap's PBR guide for the comprehensive method that most porters use for PBR materials. There are other ways to get the metal sheen you want, but blueflytrap's is arguably the most accurate.

Be warned - it involves model stacking. Even if you don't follow his guide, judging by the gold pieces on his suit, they're gonna need to be stacked for the tinted specular.

[ZergSquad]

i think you need to play around specular map
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmapmask

for example thats one called 00000002B4DD


PS also https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$phong
on phong theres something like
$phongexponenttexture <texture>

PSS but i have no idea what im talking about :)

[green]

Originally posted by anonymousgamer:

Overwatch uses PBR materials. PBR are tricky to port over to work in SFM - look up blueflytrap's PBR guide for the comprehensive method that most porters use for PBR materials. There are other ways to get the metal sheen you want, but blueflytrap's is arguably the most accurate.

Be warned - it involves model stacking. Even if you don't follow his guide, judging by the gold pieces on his suit, they're gonna need to be stacked for the tinted specular.

Ah, thanks! That sounds like what I'm probably gonna need to do. Is this it?

https://web.archive.org/web/20190529132025/https://forum.facepunch.com/dev/buoiq/A-Guide-on-Metalness-PBR-to-SFM-and-Garry-s-Mod/1/

I'm not sure if I have the textures it needs, like the albedo or metalness. The original guide specifically for overwatch models is a dead link-- do you think I could do the strategy without those materials, or could I easily create those materials?

[green]

Originally posted by ZergSquad:

i think you need to play around specular map
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmapmask

for example thats one called 00000002B4DD


PS also https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$phong
on phong theres something like
$phongexponenttexture <texture>

PSS but i have no idea what im talking about :)

Yeah, I tried playing around with the phong, but that didn't do much. I might play around with the $envmapmask though, so thanks!

[anonymousgamer]

$envmapmask won't be what you want. You need to mess with the phong mask, located in the alpha channel of the normal map, and the phongexponenttexture. You need to generate these with the PBR textures you currently have, which requires understanding what they do. And, for best results, you need to start stacking, because you'll need to use $phongalbedotint, which will likely play badly with your current albedo.

[episoder]

just port the model with regular phong and use the roughness mask aka specular exponent of the phongexponenent texture and the phongalbedotint mask for metal colors. source and sfm lacks the operation to blur the envmaps with roughness values. so... the envmap commands are pretty useless for proper visuals. even blueflytraps is a kinda bs just using a ton of lamps to fake the smooth environment lighting. the mesh stack is just pointless envmap bloat from his specular (envmap) color stuff.

about the texture formula. i think to remember the red and blueish textures contained this stuff. the red channel below 128 is specular value and above 128 is the metal mask. the roughness aka inverted phongexponent is in the green or blue channel. your choice which compression pattern looks better to you.

[anonymousgamer]

Episoder, if you want the model to look as good as it can, you use his guide. Is it a bit 'bloaty?' Yes. Does it have absolutely proven results that are head and shoulders above the half baked models ported the traditional way? Also yes.

Also, you can indeed blur envmaps, using micro bumps. Here's fuzzy reflections on a gold material. https://i.imgur.com/fVIBe95.png

[episoder]

Originally posted by anonymousgamer:

Also, you can indeed blur envmaps, using micro bumps. Here's fuzzy reflections on a gold material. https://i.imgur.com/fVIBe95.png

i don't see that there. xcuse me. i'm a technical person. microbumps don't blur the envmap. they are just more randomly sampling it. to blur an envmap with roughness you'd have to take a ton of samples (which are kinda expensive at 3:1) and average them per pixel. or use a precomputed "irradiance" (blurry) cubemap (mipmap) with a 3dtexlod operation, which is the thing sfm didn't support at this stage of development. so... mmh.

anyway... performant editing tech above. signs out of topic. :)

[anonymousgamer]

Originally posted by episoder:

i'm a technical person.

Then you'd understand why blueflytrap's guide works, and why those results are impossible to create traditionally.