pouët.net

how do I realize this shiny coating effect, I've tried blending(50/50) my texture with a lightmap, adding them, but I wasn't satisfied with the result. The Cubes screensaver from Aardbei looks really good.

it's all about the used texture (haven't seen aardbei's screensaver though)

Envmapping is a very abstract materialname..

Generally it can be:
* Normalmapping
* Normal x viewmatrix mapping

For those above it can often also include a + texcoordPivotmatrix.

It can also be a a cubemap in action to make a more proper environmentmapping.

However, for the first two (the ones usually used by lazy demosceners) you have to think about:

A) Your normals (theese are very important) - use vertexnormals to smooth mapping or you take facenormals and obtain FR disco effect (generally not wanted)

B) Texture(s) as Jcl said, remember you can do envmapping on many stages, and you dont need perfect normals for the envmapping part, so you can have plenty of smoothgroups on an object to obtain , well, finnish dezin.

the ones usually used by lazy demosceners

well, then lazy sceners are lame :)
cubemap definitely rulz

(btw, i'm also a lazy scener; but not in the above sense :)

ohh i forgot that normal mapping can be used together with cubemaps - but that still sucks...
so you have to reflect the point->eye vector to the normal, and use that for a cubemap... (and that's still far from being perfect; but is nice if your object is small relative to the environment)

Name one that isn't.

to blatantly call it "a material name".. i would say the material would just tell you if the surface is reflective (eventually specifying a mask function/texture to denote differences along the surface) and if so, to what degree.. that aside, i'd stash the term 'environment mapping' in my image-based-lighting-functionality corner, something that, according to your lighting pipeline, does not have to be bound to a material. we're thinking dynamic (cube) environment maps for irradiance sampling here, and other freaky purposes.

that aside, i think the usage of the name is a little defective when we're actually referring to applying a little (masked) 'dynamic' texture mapping (regular normal mapping, ...) on a certain stage of the material. unless consistently using that with maps that actually contain lighting information relevant to the scenery the models reside within at that very moment (where sceners usually just want to apply a little 'gloss' to an object using a map that contains local "lighting information" of some sort), i'd just like to call this 'local <eye-space, masked, ...> reflection mapping' or something.

and shifter is the ultimate blasphemist when it comes to picking maps representing 'local lighting information' :)

Reflective is the abstract material name, environmental mapping is a bit more specific (it needs a fucking map of the environment hence the name).

hm, come to think of it.. actually 'reflection' would be generally wrong *when the map used does not carry any halfway realistic information about the environment*, and 'local' environments don't really exist (okay, one could argue about it when talking about very small and confined places in a certain context). so that would decimate it to being 'just another texture mapping technique' that has absolutely nothing to do with an environment or possible reflection. perhaps picking the right name is a little dependent on your workspace design.

okay well agreed, BUT WHEN WILL PEOPLE STOP USING 'ENVIRONMENT MAPPING' WHEN THEY'RE MAPPING A TEXTURE OF A FUCKING TRAINWRECK ON A GROUP OF POLYGONS, damnit :)

env. mapping is an effect!

shut up, i bet you couldn't even tell me how and why it works :)

i prefer phong mapping.

i prefer cuatro :)

have you got A2 posters of my head on your wall already?

are they available? and why aren't you competing in idols? that would be cool :)

plek, don't bet on it :P

one beer maybe, not much more :)

i assume you're a skrebbel-cuatro-senor fan too?

not that i would -dream- of interrupting plek's usual rant, but i believe what you are looking for is the magical "additive blending" instead of the 50/50/ two-source blending you are using now. :)

plek, they won't allow instruments afaik. plus, i missed subscription deadlines.

Gouraud shading is the best!!!

gloom: now tell me, what is wrong with a discussion on the matter? or is it just that you don't get any of it :)

Thank you all

oh hm, dodke and gloom, sorry ;)