[rant] XreaL material syntax is broken by design

[illwieckz]

Recently I had some talk with @xycaleth from @JAcoders, and he taughth me that ioq3 and OpenJK relies on normalFormat keyword to handle channel flipping (for example: flipping the Y channel to convert from OpenGL format to DirectX format). Basically you can do normalFormat 2 -2 2 to double all the channels and revert the Y one. This is clever.

Previously I implemented a normalFormat keyword in Dæmon with purpose to flip normal map channels with. At the same time, I discovered that normal map scaling using shader keywords was not implemented (only a cvar existed, with only one value for both X and Y).

So I thought about implementing normalScale and ditch normalFormat. I implemented normalScale on stage level, because it's where it is expected to be done. Then I added the normalFormat -1 1 1 line on a vega shader that is known to have a wrong normal map with flipped X channel. Then I wanted to test my code and NOOOOOOOOOOO. Please, XreaL, get out of my way! %@#§ø\%!!!

The edited shader was looking like that:

textures/shared_vega/panel01
{
    qer_editorImage textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d

    diffuseMap  textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d
    normalMap   textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_n
    specularmap textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_s

    normalScale -1 1 1
}

But that can't work because the keyword is not in a stage, but it would be very ugly to implement the keyword on a shader level instead! :'(

So, what do we know about that %@#§ø\% Xreal shader syntax?

We know that all those diffuseMap, normalMap lines are shortcuts for stages, stages that are then collapsed with some code that is hard to edit without leaving it half broken.

So I would be able to do that:

textures/shared_vega/panel01
{
    qer_editorImage textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d

    diffuseMap  textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d
    {
        stage       normalMap
        map         textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_n
        normalScale -1 1 1
    }
    specularmap textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_s
}

But that's ugly.

There is another way to do shaders, and that would magically solve the need for a collapsing code, and would solve my need for the normalScale keyword, and that would make Dæmon able to do terrain blending with normal and specular maps one day!

Because we can do that today:

textures/thunder_custom/ter_rocksand_xy
{
    qer_editorImage textures/thunder_custom_src/ter_rocksand_p
    q3map_nonplanar
    q3map_shadeAngle 90
    q3map_tcGen ivector ( 256 0 0 ) ( 0 256 0 )
    q3map_alphaMod dotproduct2 ( 0 0 .75 )

    {
        map textures/shared_pk02_src/rock01_d
        rgbGen identity
    }
    {
        map textures/shared_pk02_src/sand01_d
        blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
        alphaFunc GE128
        rgbGen identity
        alphaGen vertex
    }
    {
        map $lightmap
        blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
        rgbGen identity
    }
}

But we can only blend colormaps, there is no way to add normalMap since the XreaL-inherited code expects the normalMap to be a stage that would be collapsed by the engine, and there is no way to tell the engine to collapse the normal map to one of the colormaps used in that terrain blending keyword.

What I suggest that instead of doing that:

textures/shared_pk01/door01a_norad
{
    qer_editorImage     textures/shared_pk01_src/door01a_d

    diffuseMap          textures/shared_pk01_src/door01a_d
    normalMap           textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_n
    specularMap         textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_s
    glowMap             textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_a
}

We do that:

textures/shared_pk01/door01a_norad
{
    qer_editorImage     textures/shared_pk01_src/door01a_d
    {
        diffuseMap          textures/shared_pk01_src/door01a_d
        normalMap           textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_n
        specularMap         textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_s
        glowMap             textures/shared_pk01_src/door01_a
    }
}

That would allow us to do that:

textures/shared_vega/panel01
{
    qer_editorImage textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d

    {
        diffuseMap  textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_d
        normalMap   textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_n
        specularmap textures/shared_vega_src/panel01_s
        normalScale -1 1 1
    }
}

As soon as we don't leave the stage, the engine would collapse stages without having to know clever stuff.

And we would be able to do that:

textures/thunder_custom/ter_rocksand_xy
{
    qer_editorImage textures/thunder_custom_src/ter_rocksand_p
    q3map_nonplanar
    q3map_shadeAngle 90
    q3map_tcGen ivector ( 256 0 0 ) ( 0 256 0 )
    q3map_alphaMod dotproduct2 ( 0 0 .75 )

    {
        diffuseMap  textures/shared_pk02_src/rock01_d
        normalMap   textures/shared_pk02_src/rock01_n
        specularMap textures/shared_pk02_src/rock01_s
        rgbGen identity
        nolightmap
    }
    {
        diffuseMap  textures/shared_pk02_src/sand01_d
        normalMap   textures/shared_pk02_src/sand01_n
        specularMap textures/shared_pk02_src/sand01_s
        blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
        alphaFunc GE128
        rgbGen identity
        alphaGen vertex
        nolightmap
    }
    {
        map $lightmap
        blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
        rgbGen identity
    }
}

So, yes, we would have to convert our existing shaders, but it's just a matter of adding one { and one }. I'm very OK to do it.

We would have to edit Sloth to add those {, } too. It may be not so hard to do.

In the end the code will be cleaner and features would be easier to implement. We would also be able to deduplicate all the if keyword is diffuseMap or normaMap or… code that lives both in shader parser and stage parser, to only keep the stage parser.

%@#§ø\%!!!

[illwieckz]

@Viech, @DolceTriade, what do you think about it?

[DolceTriade]

I'm ok with the idea in general.

[illwieckz]

I plan this for after 0.52 in anyway

[Viech]

I'm fine with any change, sloth should make it painless.

[illwieckz]

I just found another good reason to do the change (see that shader in dynalight test map).

This is how is written a scrolling shader whith current syntax :

textures/test-dynalight_custom/train_scroll
{
    qer_editorImage textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03b_d
    surfaceparm nomarks

    {
        map textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03b_d
        blend diffuseMap
        tcMod scroll -3.333333 0
    }
    {
        map textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03_n
        blend bumpMap
        tcMod scroll -3.333333 0
    }
    {
        map textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03_s
        blend specularMap
        tcMod scroll -3.333333 0
    }
    {
        map $lightmap
        blendFunc filter
    }
}

New syntax would allow us to do this instead:

textures/test-dynalight_custom/train_scroll
{
    qer_editorImage textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03b_d
    surfaceparm nomarks

    {
        diffuseMap textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03b_d
        bumpMap textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03_n
        specularMap textures/shared_pk01_src/wall03_s
        tcMod scroll -3.333333 0
    }
}