Hi Guys,
Just a quick tip for you. I was playing with new character submissions from future FPSC artists and noticed some of the characters relied heavily on strong lighting for the best effect. Currently X9 users cannot control this, and currently rely on a fixed shader. I just wanted to to point you to the file which will allow you to change the ratio a little:
Ensure you make suitable backups, then navigate to this folder:
FPS Creator Files effectbank fastbone
And open the shader file FASTBONE.FX, then locate the line:
gogo = (max(0, dot(netNormal, L))*SurfColor*0.25) + (SurfColor*0.75) + AmbiColor;
And replace it with:
// gogo = (max(0, dot(netNormal, L))*SurfColor*0.25) + (SurfColor*0.75) + AmbiColor;
gogo = (max(0, dot(netNormal, L))*SurfColor*0.9) + (SurfColor*0.1) + AmbiColor;
This will change the ratio of directed light vs area lighting from 25/75 to 90/10, meaning 90% of the characters illumination will come from the point light in the local area, and only 10% will come from the general average lighting irrespective of whether the polygon is facing those light sources.
A great way to learn shaders is to change little things inside working shaders and see the results. If the shader fails to load, that means you have changed too much and so always maintain backups before radically changing your shader. Although NOTEPAD is great, it does not have very good undo/redo features. Find a nice text editor with great undo/redo and you are on your way to playing with shaders and making your visuals unique to your game!
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