Spec test Opinions/discuss please

[Phoenix Bondi]

Ok guys, this took 20 mins to get right or how i think it should be - now the reason it took so long is because of some of the crap i decided to do,

Ok step one, i found a cleanish *a few scratches* metal texture on google and edited it into a 2048x2048 base texture and Darkened it.
Then i used Filters, Distort, Polar coordinates -to spin it into the saucer shape



Then went back to my basic texture for the ships saucer section and turned the Hull lines up to 100% and the spec i had already done to 10% and saved it to a seperate JPG on my desktop. then reopened it and used the Nivida tools to turn it into a Normal map (bump map in legacy's eyes)



With this done i went back into filter, Stylize and find edges. then i made it black and white then Invirted it (as it was very light) then i played around with the levels to get it just how i though i needed it.



then added it on top of my base metal texture i mentioned above with the Screen filter in the layers tab

then went Back to my basic ship texture for a 3rd time and saved it as a jpg with the specs at 5 and the hull lines at 10 (spec to 5 is the ONLY difference to my basic defuse texture)



made this black and white also and added it to the 2 layers above with an opacity of 65

HOPEFULLY it will look good ingame too but what do you lot think??? only thing i HOPE to have to tinker with is the opacity or the ORIGINAL spec from 5 to maybe a max of 15 on the final layer





If this works out well and looks good i can make it into a tutorial if people so wish

[Bones]

A lil' bit more contrast on the final map for speculars and you have a one properly made specs for TOS ships ! good work mate ;)

[EDD_7]

Bones is right, you need more contrast on the final version. My only other change would to be having your hull lines black on Specular map, mainly because you need to imagine the lines as extrusions into the hulll, in light they'd be shadowed. Also any painted lines such as the 2 on the rear of the saucer will be highly reflective and must be white but thats more modders choice. Otherwise very nice  

[Phoenix Bondi]

thanks guys, im redoing the saucer now and then i'll upload a picture so we u guys can tell me if its ok

[Phoenix Bondi]

Hows this?? this is using a slightly different method and the first one is using 25 brightness and 50 contrast with legacy turn on



This is 25 brightness and 70 on contrast


Hows that then?
Discus GO!

[Chris Jones]

Well this looks fine!

[Adonis]

Make window and glow surfaces black on the spec, they shouldn't have a shine to them (they are supposed to be reflective, not shiny, but you can't do that in BC ). I would have used the hull colors of the diffuse for the specs instead of going grayscale...grayscale specs on Feds always looked bland to me, they're more of a Romulan and partly Klingon thing.

[Phoenix Bondi]

adonis can u get me online later pls and take me though making some specs then pls

[King Class Scout]

he's got a point about blacking out any glow zones.  first thing I ended up discovering when making specs (besides some horribly grainy textures on early mods)  some ships i can't make specs for...one ship was made with an asphalt grain texture!

i'm not sure abouut the "brushed metal" look you're using there.  i always got the impression that TOSes were sprayed with a matt paint.

[GMunoz]

I agree with KCS about the brushed texture.  Spec pattern is too "checkerboard".

[Phoenix Bondi]

I agree with KCS about the brushed texture.  Spec pattern is too "checkerboard".

im using the spec layout from startrek remastered and if u look the connie did use this effect

[King Class Scout]

I have screencaps (taken on purpose for my own refs), and the spec is there, but the detail is still too coarse even on my comp for the likes of little details like that.