I'm new to gamedesign and focus on 2D work. I want to make specular maps for a game I'm working on with a small group, but can not predict what they are going to look like. We are using unity, but I have no idea how it works.
Is there a free program that allows you to test your specular maps? I found a program called darkshader, but it costs more than it is worth to me.
Posted Nov 4, 2014, 12:13 PM UTC
I think there was a diffuse material with specular map in Unity by default?
The thing is that I have no idea how to use unity myself. Ideally I would just want a flat preview of my texture with a movable light source to see how the specular map reacts. So without applying it to a model.
If you are making a game with unity, you should work on getting familiar with the engine. It is not complicated at all, just watch some tutorials on youtube. Will take maybe up to 5 hours to become comfortable with this piece of software.
Might be worth it, although I'm not involved in the technical part of the game. But I guess I should maybe get used to unity anyway for the long term.
Well, imho a game designer quickly becomes useless if he or she is unable to work in the engine doing simple operations: tweak a light source, move some objects on a level, edit XML file that contains some values (game balance), or maybe he or she needs to preview a specular map, etc.
Imo, an artist should make sure their models look like they want to in the editor, I'm not saying they need to write shaders but they atleast need to test and try it out.
Just make a small viewer that shows the specular map mapped onto some sort of flat surface or whatever, I guess.
As an artist, the Marmoset Toolbag is one of the best rendering tools you can have. It used to be free but unfortunately it isn't anymore - you can at least get the 30 day trial and give it a go.
Other than that, I don't really know of any tools. You can use Unity itself or just get one of your programmers to write you a small OpenGL viewer; for a seasoned developer it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to do.
I'm a student working with other students who are mostly new to game design, so our programmers aren't very experienced either.
Thank you for the link though! I will definitely check it out. A 30 day trial is at least enough for me to mess around with spec maps and get a feeling of how they act with lighting.
Unity viewport is the viewer itself, hehe, no need to write anything.