Paint + Transparent Textures

[HellJumper]

Question by wekateka:

Originally posted by wekateka:

Hey, awesome tutorial you've got here, you're really good at explaining stuff. I have a question though: I have read the link you've posted in the comments here about paintable items. I was wondering, is there a way to make a model paintable AND make it have transparent parts? Do I need to use multiple textures for this? I would appreciate your help, anyway, thanks for this tutorial!

[HellJumper]

The basic process is the same as described in that link; however the main difference is getting the in-game importer to recognize several materials. In blender, you will need to add two materials: http://i.imgur.com/8zQ9DMc.jpg

The numbers are explained here:

1) Go to the material tab
2) Create 2 new materials (give them names) in object mode by pressing the “+” button and then clicking “New” (the orange ball icon should turn grey if this worked)
3) Your first material will be your main texture (set this up normally/paintable). Select the polygons of your model that will be NON-transparent and in edit mode select your first material’s name and press “assign”. Now select the polygons of your model that will be transparent and assign the 2nd material to them.
4) Export your model to .smd format (you can check to see that your model as 2 materials applied by right clicking the .smd file > "open with" > notepad++: If you see 2 material names in the file, it worked).

NOTE: Since you are using 2 different textures, you will need 2 different texture files… duh. This means that you’ll need to unwrap the transparent parts separately (it actually doesn’t matter how you unwrap the transparent parts as you’ll soon see). For the transparent texture, simply make a small 256x256 square texture that is grey.


At this point you should have your .smd model file and 2 .tga texture files (1 texture is your main texture set up for paint and the other is a grey square). Open up TF2 and navigate to the importer. When you load your model, you should now see 2 vmts (and these should be listed as what you named them in blender): http://i.imgur.com/T88YDxF.jpg

Click the checkbox for "Paint VMT1" and leave the second one unchecked. For your first vmt, load in your main texture and configure it however you want. For the second vmt, load in your grey square texture and configure it like this: http://i.imgur.com/VttR7aP.jpg

NOTE:

• Check the additive box
  
• Check the translucent box
  
• Change the phong exponent to 65 and the phong boost to 6

That's it! Compile and preview.

[KnowThyOmen]

How do I make the object transparent? Do I use blender or the paint program?

[HellJumper]

It's literally right there in the post...

[KnowThyOmen]

:P I was confused but I go it to work thx. How would you make distorted views like when looking through the spycicle?

[HellJumper]

Well I just looked up the spycicle's vmt parameters:


"$translucent" 1

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$envmaptint" "[.9 .9 1]"

"$surfaceprop" "Glass"

"$phong" "1"
"$phongexponent" "15"
"$phongboost" "5"

"$phongfresnelranges" "[.3 .5 3]"


"$basephongexponent" "15"
"$basephongboost" "5"


"$rimlight" "1"
"$rimlightexponent" "20"
"$rimlightboost" ".25"

"$glowcolor" "1"

Try making your vmt like that. I realize that some parameters cannot be set using the new system... but try and mimic it as much as possible (i.e. make sure it's translucent, check the box for evnmap, etc.)

[KnowThyOmen]

Okay thx