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Second Life's Cube mapping


krasnirex
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Hello everyone. Thanks for taking the time. 

Does SL employ Cube Mapping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_mapping  for its environment reflections?  

In Second Life when shininess is turned on for an object, a dark to light gray gradient appears on its surface, simulating a reflection from the environment.  

cube mapping_001.png

Is this done with cube mapping? If so, can we change the texture map (the gray gradient) so reflections are better looking. I'm aware that if this is the case, only the person changing the texture map will be able to see it. Even so, can we?

 

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krasnirex wrote:

 

In Second Life when shininess is turned on for an object, a dark to light gray gradient appears on its surface, simulating a reflection from the environment.


That old legacy shiny in SL only reflects the sky and sun above, thus the effect what you see. For more realistic dynamic lighting reflections use materials (Diffuse map, Normal map, Specular map). Specular map is the one that is used for the dynamic shininess. It reflects sunlight and also local lights. You can vary the amount how intense the reflection is. Higher values give more intense smaller area shine. Lower values give more spread out and less intense shiny effect.

If you don't know anything about the SL materials system, here is an good article to get you started:

http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/playing-with-materials-processing-in-sl/

By searching "materials" you will find some threads in SL texturing and mesh forums about materials.

Note that you must have "Advanced Lighting Model" enabled in your viewer to see the material effects. If it's not on you will only see the diffuse map (i.e. the ordinary texture what defines the colouring of the object).

 

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. 

I'm aware of the new materials introduced. However, in Second Life, like you said Coby, specular maps only handle the amount of relfection from direct sources of light and the environment. They don't handle what is being reflected or in other words the map being reflected. In the case that SL uses cube mapping, the environment map is still observable in the new materials when the "Environment" property is raised over 0. This map is the one handling what is reflected hence the reason for me asking if it can be replaced somehow for a different one.

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Yes I know that when using specular map we can adjust the environment reflection by setting the "Environment" value above 0.  Still the whole environment is not reflected, only the sky and sun are. Therefore we see that strange effect. That's how the legacy shiny has always worked. I have never seen any other kind of environment reflection, so I think there is nothing we can do to change the legacy shiny.

Only true reflection what SL has is in the Linden water. It reflects everything. Unfortunately we cannot use it for texturing purposes (like for real mirror surfaces, real shiny spheres, etc.).

We would need additional material, let's call it "Mirror map".  Preferably with adjustable surface "fogginess". :matte-motes-big-grin:

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