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[kinggambit]

I'll try my best to describe my situation:

I have a jumbotron screen (seperate model from the frame of the jumbotron which works fine) which is composed of 3 objects:

As you can see, this screen has a lot of things going on:

1.the advertisement has 3 different textures (using multi/sub method: http://dev.wallworm.com/document/71/export_multiple_texture_skins.html) so I can trigger random skins

2. A transparent banner that runs across the bottom of the sreen using texturescroll proxy.

3. A simple glass cover (transparent and specular with glass surface property).

I've done all these things individually before without any hiccups, but no luck for me when I cram all these into one model. Alpha channel artifacts of the bottom banner and glass turning invisible in certain areas (VDC says to use $alphatest instead of $transparent but the glass won't even show up if $alphatest used).

1. Is there anyway to get that scrolling banner texture as well as the glass without the artifacts?

2. How do I know which material the prop will refer to for the surface property in models that use multiple textures?

[wallworm]

You may find it easiest to make separate models. However, these are what I'd try.

1) When using AlphaTest, you can also use $alphaTestReference with a value from 0 to 1. This can alleviate some problems where $alphatest hides/shows an entire texture. Try different values either close to 0 or close to 1 (I think the default is 0.5). Not sure, but that's something to try.

2) In terms of multi-materials, each material can have it's own $surfaceprop. If the model itself doesn't have a $surfaceprop, then the $surfaceprop will be derived from the materials. If the model has that parameter set, then the material $surfaceprop will be ignored.

3) You are of course going to submit something to the Amazing Desert Contest ? :)

[kinggambit]

yeah I was planning to just make life simpler and seperate them out into different models.

What I'm a bit confused about for #2 is how does the engine know how to associate certain collision hulls with corresponding materials? (i.e. the glass metal on a tv prop)

Just found out about the contest. hehe I'll try to get something submitted, but at the rate I'm going, might be a half-baked product at the deadline. Deadline is a good way to motivate myself to work faster though!

[wallworm]

What I'm a bit confused about for #2 is how does the engine know how to associate certain collision hulls with corresponding materials? (i.e. the glass metal on a tv prop)

You'll have to experiment with how well it works with the material settings. The VDC $surfaceprop is a little fuzzy. I'm pretty sure that I've experimented in past and the VMT can control it for models as well. But again, you'll have to experiment to verify.

If you are using a non $staticprop, you can assign $surfaceprop values to bones themselves. In this case, selected the bones and click Wall Worm > Wall Worm Model Tools > Bone Tools and add Bone Properties button at the top of the floater. Now in the modify tab you'll see a ton of options for the bone, including its $jointsurfaceprop. Note that bone jointsurfaceprop values propagate to all child bones (until a child has a different value).

Just found out about the contest. hehe I'll try to get something submitted, but at the rate I'm going, might be a half-baked product at the deadline. Deadline is a good way to motivate myself to work faster though!

I may push it back a month for users. A few people have expressed the feeling that it's too short a time. Part of my rationale has been the simple fact that you can build things far faster with WW and don't need as much time. But that presumes you already know Max and WW well. So I may still push it back.