"Obviously modelers don't model with tris..."
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why did i ctrl + T and then save?!??!? T-T
xD

You need to unwrap the whole model, because that tells where the texture goes. Then you can just edit the UV layout so the UVs for the 2 faces of the bow overlap each other, making them use the same part of the texture.

Yeah, if you already have an alpha channel for your color , you need to create another alpha channel in the normal map. The normal map can be empty, just filled with #8080FF color, but it only accepts normal maps up to 256x256 pixels, so make channel and then just change the image size.

Once you have the alpha in your normal map, in the VMT editor in the importer, load it into "Shared Normal" and uncheck the "Base Map Alpha Phong..." option. Now it should be bright only the part you defined in the alpha channel, and you only have to adjust the phong exponent and boost options to make it look as you like.

yeah, i already started doing it manually, because probably it'll take more time to look for a faster way of doing it xD

the bone depends on where exactly are you going to put the wings, you'll have to try some bones until you get the one that fits, because when the character moves, if the bone isn't the corect, the item will have a weird movement

Great, i got the phong working correctly with the normal map alpha. Now the problem is that because of the way i modeled the glass, the shine looks weird, i was wondering if there's a way to make blender distribute faces automatically to make them of the same size more or less, because now there are huge faces and tiny ones, and that makesthe shine look weird...

image[dl.dropboxusercontent.com]

i think i'll go with the normal map or something, because i don't think there's much time to finish this one before the winter update...

It looks awesome, i like it a lot. Too bad that valeve doesn't add weapons, i've seen wonderful weapons on the workshop and they are still there waiting...

yeah, the importer only recognizes .tga and .psd. The problem is that it can load the original texture (the one with both the glass and the rest of the hat) but not the smaller ones.

i'm having problems, i already made the importer ask for 2 textures, and made 2 separate textures, but the importer wont load them. maybe its for the size? it just says load error so i can't give more info on what isn't going well.

maybe using a normal map may have been a better idea...