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In my opinion one of the great features of the FPSC engine is the ease in building levels for first person shooter games, but
that ease does not exist when it comes to using effects, *. fx files, such as :

a bump, bumpbone, bumpbonerev, bumpcubereflectalpha, bumpent, bumpent, common, cubeent, Cubemap, fastbone,
illuminationent, illuminationmap, lightray, phong_bump_specular, ps_2_0 into folder (wall_spec_illumtime.fx, wall_spec_ill.fx,
wall_spec_atlasillum_1x3.fx, skinning_norm_spec.fx, illuminationmap.fx, illuminationent.fx, fastbone.fx, bumpent.fx,
bumpbonerev.fx, bumpbone.fx, bump.fx, floor_spec_ill.fx, bloom.fx post-, post-depthoffield.fx) ripple.fx.

Wow! there are too many files.

I ask you: Honestly, do you know what each of those are for? How to use all them?

However, there is not even a flat readme.txt file explaining what all *. fx files contained in those folders are for.

Do not exist but there should be detailed instructions in a simple, straightforward language, step by step with examples of how to use in game that file within the FPSC, instructions for beginners people like me, for free or sell them if you prefer.

I recognize that there are brilliant guys very clever with broad technical knowledge in Computer Science in this community,
though I think that not all people in this community has an undergraduate degree in computer science and they just wanting to
do some day a cool game for fun or to earn some money why not?

Excuse my ignorance, but why someone will make the best effect file in the world for a soltware if just (him/her) the effect
creator knows how to use it. So, that fantastic effect created is all useless to us mere mortals who will use that software. The effect files will be like gold in the bottom of the sea.

To finish just two examples: Lightray effect I think is very cool, but where is the documentation how to use the effect in simple
language, showing examples about how to use in game? Step by step.

Same thing for the PS2 effects folder ,where are the documentation for using the *. fx files in that folder?

All will be trial and error things for the users.

Please, if you created something that needs technical explanation about how to use them, make it in a simple and straightforward documentation with examples for use in the game or program which will be used, otherwise all will be trial and error stuff to anyone who comes to use them and a time-consuming thing.

Please, let's keep the great feature of the FPSC engine, the ease in building levels for fps games.

That's all folks!

Thank you for reading.

All the best.

Well, out of the box the application works as it is supposed to. It's supposed to be an easy to use FPS game creator that allows someone to create a quick level in minutes.

However, it also provides features such as those you mentioned that are not designed for users just beginning to use the program.

All of these things take time to learn. Creating a guide that would describe all of those things and how to use them in any amount of detail would take a lot of time and would still leave unanswered questions.

Regarding those ".fx" files. Those are shaders and the default-current version of FPSC already designates shaders on all textures that can support them. They have updated most of the stock media in 1.18 to allow normal-specular mapping.

Some of the ".fx" files in the effectbank are outdated and frankly, unnecessary for most uses. The effects in the "PS 2.0" folder are the ones you should spend the most time learning about. These effects contain the full-screen shaders (Bloom, Depth of Field, etc) and the texture shaders (Normal-specular mapping on segments and entities.)

The bloom full-screen shader works out of the box and is already applied. The texture shaders also work out of the box and are already applied on the supported stock media.

To learn what each shader does and how it is applied you can watch Bond1's tutorial videos on YouTube. He created many of the shaders for FPSC and does offer a very descriptive tutorial on each one.

Additionally, you can look at the stock media and open the textures in an image editor to see what a normal and specular texture looks like. Create a copy of that and start modifying them to see how your changes are affected by the shader.

Finally, as I said most of these things are considered 'advanced' and are beyond the basic scope of what FPSC is marketed for. FPSC is designed to make creating a basic game easy. All other things that require personal development such as scripts, textures, models, weapons are all advanced options that are far beyond what could fit in a text file.

Most if not all of your questions can be learned by searching Google, YouTube, and this forum for tutorials, guides and answers.

Hello Doctor 3D,

First of all, I really thank you so much for your time and effort in trying to explain in brief what some shader files (. fx) of the
FPSC are for. Very good explanations, thank you!

I understand to write How to instructions is not easy because that stuff will require much effort and time for those who are writing
or doing the tutorials and many people will avoid that kind of activity at all cost.

However, a brief explanation similar to the ones you wrote in your post here in this thread are not so difficult and laborious to be
made, though a little time-consuming task.

I've seen some tutorials on You tube about the shaders of the FPSC, some are really great with good video quality and well
explained slowly and step by step some times, but others are opposed to those with low-quality video images and with fast paced
explanations, and often not understandable.

I can understand that also, after all not all people are teachers or have studied teaching techniques.

Well in summary beginners should make their own way through trial and error. I'm really sorry about that.

Thank you so much again.

Best regards.

Hello everyone.

If you want to learn a few more about the basics of the subject Shaders (a very complex subject that involves a lot of theory in advanced Mathematics and Physics for Shader programmer not for end users), then you can check out the links below which are divided by subject.

I admire scientists like Phong, Blinn and others were able to developing all those advanced theory based on just lighting and shadows using advanced Mathematical Models and Physics for 3D Graphics Programming from the scratch using Differential and Integral Calculus, Vector Analysis and other very advanced and very difficult Mathematical stuffs. Those guys were really awesome!


However, do not panic, fortunately you will not need to know all that advanced Math because the web site links will provide you just an overview of the Shaders for beginners, but if you want to know more about the thread, also there are several other links in each web page for further reading.

After you reading all that informations you will can understand better some the various definitions available about this subject such as:

Types of shaders, Bump mapping, Normal mapping or Dot3 bump mapping, Normal mapping in video games, Mipmap, Displacement

mapping, Parallax mapping,Occlusion culling,Tessellation or tiling,High Level Shader Language (HLSL), GLSL (OpenGL Shading

Language), Cube mapping, Ambient occlusion, Phong shading.

So, let's go:

***Types of shaders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaders#Types_of_shaders
_________________________________________________

***Bump mapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_mapping
_________________________________________________

***Normal mapping or Dot3 bump mapping and Normal mapping in video games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping
________________________________________________

***Mipmap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmapping
________________________________________________

***Displacement mapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_mapping
________________________________________________

***Parallax mapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_mapping
_______________________________________________

***Occlusion culling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occlusion_culling#Occlusion_culling
________________________________________________

***Tessellation or tiling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation
_________________________________________________

***High Level Shader Language (HLSL)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLSL
_________________________________________________

***GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLSL
_________________________________________________

***Cube mapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_mapping
_________________________________________________

***Ambient occlusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion
________________________________________________

***Phong shading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phong_shading
________________________________________________

This is not a treatise about Shaders there are a lot more out there, furthermore I can not answer any questions about this subject, sorry I am not a Shader programmer guru, just a beginner like you also.

I sincerely hope all those informations can be useful for you somehow.

Have fun.

I find the shaders incredibly simple

Create a 3d object, uv map and texture it. Then download a normal mapper or the dds extension for photoshop to create a normal map. Make a high contrast grayscale version of the texture for the illumination and a black and white one for the specular (not sure if that's correct but it works for me). Then import it into fps creator, change the texture directory to texturename_D2 (so it will recognise the _N,_S and _I maps) and set an effect for the object in the fpe.

and done


Poloflece

Hello Poloflece

First of all, thank you for posting your tip about Shaders in this thread.

I think this subject SHADERS is more complex for those people working in GPUs development (NVidia for example) or softwares
development like Normal Mappers, Specular Mappers, Illumination Mappers, and so on, because developers will need of complex formulas for the mathematical calculations that will produce images Normal, Specular, and so on, which will be displayed on the computer screen.

For the end user is relatively easy to use Shaders, we will be using a software that will output images Normal, Specular, etc. The software (Shaders programming) and GPU will do all the hard work for us (Mathematical calculus.

The hard part is to use correctly the Shader software or script.

By the way you wrote "...change the texture directory to texturename_D2.... In this case I should rename the directory name to texturename_D2 or rename the diffuse file into that directory to texturename_D2, sorry I could not understand that right.


Best regards.

Hi all,

If you are in the dark about what does Shaders means or is for or if you wanna know further informations about shaders or effects as they are called in FPSC, following a link below to the Google Books, where you'll find many useful information in Chapter 3 about the subject SHADERS and MATERIALS, is a must read chapter for all beginners.

Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=EkCJhgL4PKEC&pg=PA41&dq=3d+game++textures&hl=pt-BR&ei=ChyCTdHVOtCztwfJwKS3BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=3d%20game%20%20textures&f=false

I hope those informations are useful to you understand the subject Shaders a bit better.

Enjoy!