Talk:Creating a Material

Split-up?

I don't get it. A large chunk of this article (the basic stuff) was already in Creating Materials, just organized differently. Why two articles? It looks like the simple stuff from here that isn't in the other article should be merged into that article, and the more advanced topics like parallax mapping should be put into their own small articles. This is getting way too big. I think it should be split up like this and linked together:

• Creating Materials (which already exists)
• Creating Normal Maps
• Creating Reflective Materials
• Parallax
• VMT Parameters (a reference of the VMT parameters, which is sadly lacking)

--IanL 13:28, 9 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I wrote this to be a step-by-step tutorial, which differs from the other article, which sort of just blurts out all the information. For some people, a tutorial may be easier to follow. However, I do see your point. I wouldn't be opposed to deleting this article and creating the ones you suggested. VMT parameters are in Shader Types and Parameters. --Mungo 20:14, 15 Jul 2005 (PDT)

OK. I've branched the article into separate pieces, and now I'll trim and link the original one. Yeah, I missed that the shader parameters article already existed. I'll add a link to it. --IanL 12:02, 17 Jul 2005 (PDT)

Well, this can now be merged into Creating Materials--Mungo 09:03, 18 Jul 2005 (PDT)

Actually, I take that back. For someone who just wants to get a basic texture into their map, this is far easier to follow than that other article.--Mungo 09:12, 18 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I'm going to try to insert some of this info into Creating Materials in an easy-to-follow manner and then just redirect to it from here.--Mungo 14:24, 19 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I propose a different split-up:

• Material Creation (New name for Creating Materials in accordance with easier category listing. Already moved.)
• Normal Map Creation (Already exists.)
• Parallax mapping (Already moved.)
• Reflective Materials (Already exists.)
• Shader Types and Parameters (Already exists, but could probably be rewritten.)

--Andreasen 15:55, 27 Aug 2007 (PDT)

I'm now done with the split-up, so unless you want to object, I guess that's the end of the discussion. --Andreasen 15:13, 29 Aug 2007 (PDT)

Multiple Skins on a Single Model

I moved the useful info from this discussion into a stub article: Creating Multiple Skins for a Single Model

So this article can be safely deleted.--Mungo 15:01, 19 Jul 2005 (PDT)

Please don't empty a page of all it's contents before nominating it for deletion. How are people meant to assess it's usefulness when you've basically already deleted all the content on your own? If you're pasting bits into other articles, copy and paste, don't cut and paste. --Graham 07:23, 23 Jul 2005 (PDT)

please don't delete it

i think you should have kept the tutorial based article and deleted the other one. I felt quite confident about getting my textures into the engine after reading the tutorial but the other articles are too difficult to follow. i'm a novice....i need step by step instructions to get the hang of it. --Unknown

RE: Merge

Why? I don't see the point... They're two different and relatively unrelated entities. I personally vote against it. --RenSaiyuri 08:13, 24 Mar 2008 (PDT)

Custom materials?

This article says "for your material to be detected, you must save it under your game or mod's \materials folder with the extension .vmt. Note: If you are creating materials and textures exclusively for a map for an existing mod, consider using BSPZIP\Packbsp\Pakrat to package the material and texture files within the map file itself. This will avoid them ever becoming lost." This reads like packing the materials into the BSP is optional.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10654973&postcount=2 puts a slightly different spin on it: "For other people to see your custom textures, you must add them to your map file (.bsp) using bspzip or pakrat." This clearly states that packing the materials into the BSP is mandatory.

I'm beginning to suspect the forum post is correct, which would mean the article needs correcting to clarify that packing is mandatory for custom materials. --Fatman UK 23:34, 18 August 2010 (UTC)