Creating a black glossy object?

[Amoralie Triellis]

Hello all, I have a detailed mesh that I want to be all black, problem is when I make it all black it loses all detail, as in like just looks like a black blob all together - no shadows or anything

I'm thinking perhaps I need to add some glossiness to it, or something that will still let the detail come through. Any suggestions? Would ideally want it to still be matte but have the light play off of it.

If you have one, guidance on how to do it would be great!

[Rolig Loon]

If you take a look at black objects in RL, you'll see that they aren't truly black, as in the color <0,0,0>.  They are various shades of dark gray.  If you want a black object in SL to look realistic, then, you start by tinting it dark gray (<0.05,0.05,0.05>, maybe) and then either apply shading as a texture or rely on materials and in-world light sources to create shading.

You can adjust the glossiness and environmental reflectivity on your specular texture to vary the amount and type of shininess on your object. If you really want a matte appearance, you may want to leave off the specular texture altogether and just use your normal texture to vary the way light plays off the object's surface. If you are clever about creating detailed diffuse and normal textures, BTW, you may be able to reduce the amount of surface detail in your 3D model, lower its L.I., and still get the same effect.

[arton Rotaru]

In video games the range of the brightness/darkness, and color saturation is usually between 20 and 80 %. To make sure light and shadows, specular reflections, ambient occlusion have a chance to darken/lighten a surface.