For maximum flexibility and visual appereance, textures (diffuse chanell) mapped on model can have additional properties. Those are divided in shading and blending options that can be edited on per surface basis.
Shading tells renderer how to cast shadows and illuminates polygons in surfaces.
FULL BRIGHT <-- no matter in what enviroment model is it will be allways shaded with maximum ambient (i.e. no shadows will be cast on it). This method of shading is used, for Fire or Explosions models where you dont want fire to catch any shadows or be darkened.Best used on low polygonal models (single flat plane)
SMOOTH <-- used on rest of models.With higher polygon count models are shaded dependebly on enviroment they are in (darkened or overbrightened), that can dramatically add to better visual appereance of model. Also model can have custom shading (only accesible from Serious Editor).
Blending modes tell renderer how to map texture on model's surfaces.Diffuse checkbox must be checked.
OPAQUE <-- texture is completely mapped on surface (Figure 80) without transparency , i.e. blended 100%.Diffuse color can be adjusted.
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| Figure 80 |
TRANSPARENT <-- to use this blending mode texture with alpha chanel (32 bit TGA) must be used. Alpha chanel is interpreted black/white via treshold, white in alpha chanel is totally notransparent, black is totally transparent, everything in alpha with value greater then 0.5 is interpreted as nontransparent. This way fine blured transition is achieved. Low polygonal torches can be easily made using transparent mod (Figure 81).
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| Figure 81 |
TRANSLUCENT <-- to use this blending mode texture with alpha chanel (32 bit TGA) must be used. Alpha chanel is interpreted with its values i.e. any value between 0 and 1 is used, white in alpha chanel is totally notransparent, black is totally transparent, gradient alpha chanel can be used to simulate model's fade off. Notice gradient texture fade on Figure 82.
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| Figure 82 |
ADD <-- to use this mode any texture can be used (even procedural). With add blending color luminosity ( same way add in layers work in Photoshop for example ) is add to background model is on, very light color will be added more then dark, black wont have any effect at all. Add mode can be succesfully used when creating explosion model (Flat) where there is no need for alpha chanel to blend model with enviroment and to avoid ugly edges when using alpha. Also lensflares models use add mode to map flare textures (Figure 83).
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| Figure 83 |
MULTIPLY <-- to use this mode any texture can be used (even procedural). This blending mode works like in Photoshop for example, high luminos pixels will darken more background while low luminos pixels wont affact background at all. This mode works opposite to Add mode. Best usage for this blend mode is when making particles models or smoke models (Figure 84).
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| Figure 84 |
Shading and blending parameters can be adjusted on per surface basis or on multiply surfaces.