Maniaplanet Forum

So, I learned about the wonders of layer masking today and have been going crazy. Thought that I could do similar things with DetailsIllum.dds to make colored lights, as well as DetailsDiffuse.dds to actually change the color of the lights. However, I found out it's not quite so simple. Anybody want to give me a comprehensive tutorial?

I don't have the game so I can't try this, but there was something posted on CP that said this:

New Illum
It seems to work with different alpha colors to generate different types of light (headlights, brake...).
So it's a :
-126 grey* for headlight (others values possible ?),
-and 0->36 black for brakes.
*After some tests, it doesn't seems to be an absolute value. These areas are noisy and depending wich bit sampling you're using these values changes (52 and 192).

the alpha values normally deal with shininess for the car bodies.

Right--this I understand. However, my problem is since everything's "shiny" in-game, with the alpha channel, I have no way of making it less transparent without removing the alpha channel entirely--and I can't "undo" that without the undo button. Problem is, with everything so see-through, I don't always know where to bound my selection boxes so I'm just coloring the lights...

DetailsIllum.dds is a RGBA dds working as described in CP (I don't have all the values in memory, I'll be back later with the exact specs).
RGB = color of self illum
A = intensity of the selfillum combined with area masks (brakes, front lights)

DetailDiffuse is 100% opaque and is working almost like skin
RGB = Diffuse Color
A = Shinyness

But this texture is also used for glass parts !
RGB = Color
A = transparency

Skin is RGBA as well
RGB = color of the paint
A = varnish/gloss
>alpha black = matte paint
>grey 50% = standard car paint+varnish)
>grey>50% = metal paint+varnish, the brighter the alpha, the more metallic the paint
>alpha white = pure chrome (very usefull for wheels)