How to get mesh textures to shine in-world?

[Sally Audebarn]

Hello, every time I upload a textured mesh and enable the shine feature in-world, it doesn't shine. In fact, sometimes I am able to see through them. How can I stop this from happening? Also, it happens even when I save the textures as a PNG file.

[Rolig Loon]

I'm not sure what you mean by "shine". 

Fullbright illuminates objects as if they are being hit by direct sunlight, even at night.  It can make an object appear super bright, compared to nearby things.

Glow adds an aura around objects as if they are emitting light, like a firefly.

A specular texture on an object can be manipulated to reflect light from other sources or to to create a sheen by simulating polish on a surface.

The point light feature can be used to make an object emit light either as diffuse brightness or as a beam.

The fact that you can sometimes see through your objects suggests that you might be applying glow to an object that also has some transparency (or has a 32-bit texture on it).  Glow has that odd effect sometimes.  If you don't intend to have transparency, you may have accidentally uploaded your PNG file as a 32-bit texture instead of a 24-bit one.  If you're using Photoshop, use the "Save for Web" option to avoid doing that.  If you're using GIMP, I think you have an explicit 24- or 32-bit choice when you save PNG.

[Sally Audebarn]

Apparently it is set to 32 bit. How can I change it to 24 bit without using photoshop or gimp?

[Chic Aeon]

5 minutes ago, Sally Audebarn said:

Apparently it is set to 32 bit. How can I change it to 24 bit without using photoshop or gimp?

If you are making the texture inside of Blender then when you go to save the texture just be SURE that you have RGB showing as the export not RGBA (a is of course designating ALPHA).  Currently there is a bug in Blender and after you save once, it wan't to change the RGB that you may have designated to RGBA.  I have found NO way around this and I have really tried (and asked) so you need to be SURE each and every time that you are saving RGB.  You can of course resave in your graphics program with no alpha channel, but easier just to get it right the first time

I have tried to attach a screenshot but graphcs have been showing broken for me for a day. So assuming there is an issue and it isn't just me. Maybe when that gets fixed you can see it :D.

 

 

 

[Rolig Loon]

36 minutes ago, Sally Audebarn said:

Apparently it is set to 32 bit. How can I change it to 24 bit without using photoshop or gimp?

There is no way.  You cannot change the file attributes of a texture in SL.  You can only do it in an external program and re-upload.

[ChinRey]

21 hours ago, Sally Audebarn said:

Apparently it is set to 32 bit. How can I change it to 24 bit without using photoshop or gimp?

As Rolig said, you can't change it after it's been uploaded. You can set the alpha mode to none of course but that's not really a good solution, better to reupload the texture with the error corrected. If you don't want to mess around with complex image editors like Photoshop or Gimp, try Paint.net (freeware for Windows) or GraphicConverter (shareware for Mac) instead. Both are far more user friendly than Gimp and Photoshop and still amazingly powerful.

With Paint.net: Simply open the image, select Save as and selct 24 Bit

With GraphicConverter, open the image, select Alpha channel -> Remove in the Image menu and save.

 

[Sally Audebarn]

Thank you all. Also, how can I bake the texture that I have applied to a wall IN BLENDER with only the ambiance occlusion added. So I don't want the shadows which are included in "combined." If I bake using ambiance occlusion, then I lose the texture (let's say a stucco texture that was applied). So I want only the ambiance occlusion added to the stucco texture when I bake the texture in blender.

[arton Rotaru]

Ambient occlusion maps are baked just as that. They will be combined with the diffuse texture in an image editor like Photoshop. Simply by putting them in a layer above the diffuse and setting it's blend mode to multiply. There really is no reason to not do it this way.

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   In the textures tab of the build tool,for a texture with an alpha channel (32 bit), you can set alpha channel to none or something like that, as opposed to blend, mask, or emissive. It won't look transparent, but it might still cause alpha sorting problems under the right (wrong) circumstances.

   Oh, Chin already mentioned this.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Ivanova Shostakovich
Because oops.

[Chic Aeon]

10 minutes ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

   In the textures tab of the build tool,for a texture with an alpha channel (32 bit), you can set alpha channel to none or something like that, as opposed to blend, mask, or emissive. It won't look transparent, but it might still cause alpha sorting problems under the right (wrong) circumstances.

   Oh, Chin already mentioned this.

Just a note WHY you don't want to do this. It takes the server longer to download an image with an alpha channel than one without. So if you don't WANT or NEED the alpha channel you are simply making your texture one that is longer to download :D.

Thought an explanation (that I don't think was already here) was probably a good thing :D.