Blender - Shader Improvements

[hexabits]

This ticket will track the creation and implementation of .blend files which house slottable NodeGroup setups for various shader features.

RGBA Improvements

• [x] Channel splitting for RGBA colors per their texture slot splitting rules
  • [x] RGBA for single-channel texture slots is interpreted as full color, not luminance = White, not Red
  • [x] RGBA for multi channel must be split into one Color node for each split

Shader Attribute Support

• [x] JWE Foliage_Billboard
  • [x] pSpecular (replaces SP)
  • [x] pRoughness (replaces RN)
  • [x] pMetalness (replaces MT)
• [x] JWE2 Foliage_Billboard
  • [x] pDielectricReflectivity (replaces SP) Note: Appears to be out of 255, not 1.0
  • [x] pRoughness (replaces RN)
• [x] Glass_Uniform*
  • [x] pOpacity (replaces OP)
  • [x] pSpecularReflectance (replaces SP) Note: RGB
  • [x] pRoughness (replaces RN)

Tex Channel Support

• [ ] Fill out texchannel.py for more than PZ.
• [ ] Address texchannel differences between shaders.
  • [ ] JWE2: pNormalTexture A is sometimes AO, sometimes Roughness.
  • [x] Metallic_Roughness_Opaque_BC7
  • [ ] JWE2: pNormalTexture B is apparently sometimes Metalness, or other channels.
  • [ ] Metalness
    • [x] Metallic_Roughness_Opaque_BC7:
      • building_rubble001.pnormaltexture
      • dfw_painted_metal_green001.pnormaltexture
  • [ ] Unknown
    • Foliage_Billboard:
    • bush_berry_bear_billboards_basecolor.pnormaltexture (Possible, not sure, may be intentional normal bending for foliage.)
• [ ] Address texchannel splitting differences, either at extraction time or Blender import time.
  • Notes: We technically need to know the shader to decide whether to split pNormalTexture as RGB/A or RG/B/A. However, we could also theoretically compare a Normals Z reconstruction to Channel B and decide whether it should be split that way on extraction.

Improvement and implementation of .blend files

General

• [ ] Identify a way to expose the available 'shader' node trees and allow creating new materials from them.

General Attributes vs Instanced attributes (custom properties)

I'm adding this after finding there is an issue with the way some dynamic attributes (e.g. flexicolours) are embedded in the shader: They are global to all materials, instead of instanced by each use of the material. The instanced attributes will require to move them to a panel using a data ref link.

• [ ] Flexicolour channels
• [ ] dirtyness/wetness

AnimalVariation

• [x] Implementation of AnimalVariation (AnimalVariation.blend)
• [ ] Piebald/Patchwork masks should not get default black RGB nodes connected to the NodeGroup.
• [ ] Finish scars/wounds
• [ ] Finish dirty/wetness

Detail and Detail_Basic

• [ ] Implementation of Detail and Detail_Basic (Detail.blend)
  • [x] PZ
  • [x] JWE2
  • [ ] WHAOS

FlexiDiffuse

• [ ] Implement pFlexiColourTexCoordIndex
• [ ] Implement pFlexiColourVertexColour
• [ ] Implement pEnableEmissiveFlexiColour
• [ ] Potentially rework sRGB/Linear Gamma correction order
  • RGB values from the color nodes are not transferrable to prefabs These are actually transferrable, there was just some other confounding issue.
  • Hex inputs in color nodes are gamma corrected after input, meaning hex codes from in-game cannot be pasted as hex into Blender color nodes.

MainShader

• [ ] Accurate Translucency and Transparency:
  1. MainShader BSDF shader mixing or MainShader swapping
  2. Single sided vs double sided in proper cases
  3. Alpha Blended and Alpha Hashed in proper cases

Elaboration: Every translucent material does not render well. Alpha Blend mode is never used afaict, and MainShader BSDF can only do certain clip shaders iirc. All glass shaders need a Translucent BSDF with Alpha Blend. Dissolve and TAAGroup4/6 clip shaders may be better using Alpha Hashed instead of Alpha Tested. Single and double sided transparency also needs to be dealt with for accurate rendering if there is currently no code to do so.

Correct Setup for Glass_Textured_Weather:

Creation of .blend files

DiffuseBlend

• [ ] Value blending BC to 2 version of BC, pBaseColour2.

Transmission/Transmissive

• [ ] TBD

Ice

Textures

'pAOTexture',
'pBaseDielectricSpecularLevelTexture',
'pBaseNormalTexture',
'pDetailNormalTexture',
'pDetailRoughnessTexture',
'pDiffuseTexture',
'pFlexiColourMasksTexture',
'pSubLayerDiffuse0Texture',
'pSubLayerDiffuse1Texture',
'pThicknessTexture',

Attributes

'pAngleDarkenPower': (0, [((1.0,), 2), ((0.5,), 1), ((1.25,), 1), ((0.6,), 1), ((1.2,), 1)]),
'pDetailNormalStrength': (0, [((0.5,), 4), ((1.0,), 1), ((0.35,), 1), ((0.3,), 1)]),
'pDetailTile': (0, [((3.0,), 4), ((2.0,), 2), ((8.0,), 1)]),
'pDiffuseTint': (2, [((1.0, 1.0, 1.0), 7)]),
'pDirectScatterTransmittance': (2, [((30.0, 1.0, 0.05), 1), ((16.2, 0.424, 0.075), 1), ((4.25, 0.8, 0.25), 1), ((11.1, 0.381, 0.2), 1), ((27.7, 0.27, 0.275), 1)]),
'pDirectionalLightTransmittanceOcclusion': (0, [((0.5,), 6), ((0.0025,), 1)]),
'pEnableRandomSubLayerOffset': (6, [((1,), 7)]),
'pIBLScatterTransmittanceSurfaceNormalDistortion': (0, [((0.1,), 4), ((0.5,), 1), ((0.4,), 1), ((0.072,), 1)]),
'pMaximumSnowAmount': (0, [((1.0,), 7)]),
'pMaximumWaterPermeability': (0, [((0.5,), 7)]),
'pNormalMapAngleDarkenStrength': (0, [((0.5,), 2), ((0.6,), 2), ((0.0,), 1), ((0.2,), 1), ((0.15,), 1)]),
'pNormalMapRefractionStrength': (0, [((1.0,), 4), ((0.5,), 1), ((0.8,), 1), ((0.4,), 1)]),
'pOpacityScale': (0, [((0.0,), 7)]),
'pRenderLayerOverride': (5, [((-1,), 7)]),
'pRoughnessRefractionStrength': (0, [((1.0,), 5), ((1.5,), 1), ((0.1,), 1)]),
'pSSAOScatterReflectionOcclusionStrength': (0, [((1.0,), 4), ((0.25,), 1), ((0.8,), 1), ((0.5,), 1)]),
'pSSRReflectionTransmittanceMip': (0, [((2.0,), 5), ((5.0,), 1), ((3.0,), 1)]),
'pSSRReflectionTransmittanceScale': (0, [((1.0,), 6), ((0.25,), 1)]),
'pSnowOnSlopesOffset': (0, [((0.0,), 1), ((0.094,), 1), ((0.063,), 1), ((0.422,), 1), ((0.14,), 1)]),
'pSubLayer0': (3, [((0.1, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.18, 0.1, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.13, 0.125, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.15, 0.125, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.13, 0.07, 0.0, 0.0), 1)]),
'pSubLayer0DiffuseTint': (2, [((0.6705883, 0.8196079, 0.9019608), 6), ((1.0, 1.0, 1.0), 1)]),
'pSubLayer1': (3, [((0.2, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.031, 0.015, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.051, 0.02, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.041, 0.02, 0.0, 0.0), 1), ((0.046, 0.015, 0.0, 0.0), 1)]),
'pSubLayer1DiffuseTint': (2, [((0.9372549, 0.9803922, 1.0), 5), ((1.0, 1.0, 1.0), 2)]),
'pSubLayerAOMipBias': (0, [((4.0,), 2), ((4.5,), 2), ((1.0,), 1), ((5.0,), 1), ((5.75,), 1)]),
'pSubLayerAOStregnth': (0, [((1.0,), 4), ((1.25,), 2), ((2.0,), 1)]),
'pSubLayerOpacityMipBias': (0, [((1.0,), 5), ((4.0,), 1), ((5.0,), 1)]),
'pSubLayerTile': (0, [((8.0,), 1), ((1.0,), 1), ((0.4,), 1), ((1.3,), 1), ((0.9,), 1)]),
'pTransmittanceMinimum': (0, [((0.0,), 1), ((0.079,), 1), ((0.176,), 1), ((0.175,), 1), ((0.146,), 1)]),
'pTransmittanceScale': (0, [((1.0,), 2), ((0.74,), 1), ((0.2,), 1), ((0.5,), 1), ((0.3,), 1)]),

• [ ] TBD

Moss

Textures

'pMossBaseColourRoughnessPackedTexture',
'pMossNormalTexture',
'pMossVarianceTexture',

Attributes

'pMossAmount': (0, [((1.0,), 51)]),
'pMossDielectricSpecularLevel': (0, [((0.025,), 51)]),
'pMossDiscolour': (2, [((0.8, 0.5, 0.5), 51)]),
'pMossDiscolourEdge': (0, [((0.43,), 48), ((0.258,), 1), ((0.394,), 1), ((1.0,), 1)]),
'pMossDiscolourRelativeToHeight': (6, [((1,), 49), ((0,), 2)]),
'pMossEdge': (0, [((0.5,), 46), ((0.409,), 1), ((0.267,), 1), ((0.089,), 1), ((0.2,), 1)]),
'pMossEdgeDetail': (0, [((0.5,), 48), ((0.9170001,), 1), ((0.274,), 1), ((0.09,), 1)]),
'pMossEdgeFalloff': (0, [((0.2,), 46), ((0.577,), 1), ((0.277,), 1), ((0.682,), 1), ((0.35,), 1)]),
'pMossEnabled': (6, [((0,), 46), ((1,), 5)]),
'pMossHeight': (0, [((1.0,), 48), ((1.482,), 1), ((2.553,), 1), ((0.6,), 1)]),
'pMossHeightVertexColourScale': (0, [((0.0,), 50), ((1.0,), 1)]),
'pMossPitch': (0, [((0.37,), 46), ((0.249,), 1), ((0.251,), 1), ((0.298,), 1), ((0.3,), 1)]),
'pMossSheenAmount': (0, [((1.4,), 48), ((2.679,), 1), ((2.769,), 1), ((3.632,), 1)]),
'pMossSheenTint': (2, [((1.0, 1.0, 0.5), 49), ((0.7793009, 0.7033896, 0.2044775), 1), ((0.6208915, 0.6208915, 0.2612682), 1)]),
'pMossTiling': (0, [((0.5,), 46), ((0.229,), 3), ((0.4,), 1), ((0.6,), 1)]),
'pMossVarianceAmount': (0, [((0.7,), 46), ((0.85,), 2), ((1.0,), 1), ((0.8980001,), 1), ((0.754,), 1)]),
'pMossVarianceEdge': (0, [((0.15,), 47), ((0.0,), 1), ((0.007,), 1), ((0.25,), 1), ((0.3,), 1)]),
'pMossVarianceEdgeFalloff': (0, [((0.2,), 51)]),
'pMossVarianceTiling': (0, [((0.5,), 48), ((0.6300001,), 1), ((2.2,), 1), ((1.2,), 1)]),
'pMossYaw': (0, [((0.04,), 49), ((0.028,), 1), ((0.1,), 1)]),

• [ ] TBD

Iridescent

Textures

'pIridescenceStrength',
'pIridescenceTexture',

Attributes

None

• [ ] TBD

[ilodev]

In regards to:

• Identify a way to expose the available 'shader' node trees and allow creating new materials from them.

Doing a quick test yesterday if felt more natural to have a button (custom panel too) on the material properties to 'operate' that material. The button will clear out the existing material node tree and create a new one based on the available .blend files, pre-populate the fgm information and optionally pre-polate texture slots. The reason I metioned it feels more natural is because you delegate all the material creation/removal to blender, and we'll working on an existing material without having to replace materials on other objects/scenes/etc.

I'll start implementing this for a quick review of the workflow

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Example of Glass issues

At least for GlassWall but possibly all Glass* I have not verified yet.