Needed: Comic Book Style Shader

[N0ught]

I need a shader that will put dark lines around every model in the game, from the point of view of the camera. I think this would give a wonderful effect for some mods.

Any ideas? I don't know much about shading so I don't really know how feasible this would be. Seems like it could be done though...

EDIT: Here is a (poorly) photoshopped example of what I'm looking for. Of course with what I'm talking about the dark edges would go ALL the way around the models, but I think this gives an idea of what I need:

 

[jik]

Cell shading.  Done it in MAX with pluggins, but I don't know how to make shaders. 

 

[Barf]

you need to add a toon shader to your mb.fx file in hlsl (high-level-shader-language),

http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/toon-shader - basic toon shader
http://mbx.streetofeyes.com/index.php/topic,367.0.html mbx shader tutorial
http://mbx.streetofeyes.com/index.php/topic,1016.0.html an older (dead) thread discussing mainly normal mapping

 

[N0ught]

Actually it is easier than that - based on jik's advice I looked it up and found a tutorial within minutes. All you have to do (with wings 3d) is:

1. Bring up your model and select it.
2. Right-click the model and "Duplicate" it in the exact same spot.
3. Select all the faces on the duplicate.
4. Select "Bump" from the right-click menu.
5. Drag the mouse to make the duplicate item a little bigger than the original - the difference is how thick the lines will be.
6. Select the entire duplicate.
7. On the right-click menu click "Invert" - this will invert the normals and cause the inner "original" model to show through from all angles.
8. Retexture the duplicate with all black (you can even use a black section of the same texture).
9. Select both entire models - the original and the duplicate, and click "combine" in the right-click menu.
10. Viola!:

* This will double your polys but it is so easy and you can use very simple models if you are going for the comic book effect of course. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[jik]

Wow, that's a cool way to do it, Though cell shading also takes down the number of colors used (usually down to like 3 levels of shading, which gives that quick done comic like look).  Have you tried the models in game?  I doubt this will wokr, as I thought they make all materials 2 sided...  I could be wrong.  Show an in game screenie!  What you may want to do is simplify (not sure how wings does it) the "outline" model to have less polys since you are joust using it for an outline.

This is thread is kind of kool.  I may still make my mini wanderer mod and do it cell shade style...

 

[Llew2]

One of the olddies (fisheye perhaps) did a 'Sketch M&B' mod, where everything was black and white/sketchy looking. Done with shaders, I believe.

It was for something like .751 though.

 

[N0ught]

Just tested it and the method I described works PERFECTLY in M&B, at least with the "iron_shader" I always use.

 

[killkhergit]

What I do know is that Shader Model 3.0 supports edge detection, and that it's included in the HDR package of Zaro's GE mod. You should check it out.

 

[wheene]

Well i really like that dagger, but tri-count has doubled right ? Doing it this way would cut your FPS to half probably, shaders are better way to do it, even though i have no idea how  But tutorial was alredy posted, so it shouldnt be hassle.

 

[Chel]

You could also batch edit all the textures? That would be easier perhaps.

I did something like this really long time ago, got a paper M&B

Spoiler

 

[jik]

cool!  I guess the faces where not able to be processed that way?

 

[Sibylla]

in maya there's a pre made toon shader & so you can make this:

Spoiler

look like this:

Spoiler

 

[jik]

in maya there's a pre made toon shader & so you can make this:

Spoiler

look like this:

Spoiler

The difference is, you can't export it like that.  I've done the same in MAX.

 

[Chel]

cool!  I guess the faces where not able to be processed that way?

they could, but it looked too weird then and I didn't do it

 

[killkhergit]

in maya there's a pre made toon shader & so you can make this:

Spoiler

look like this:

Spoiler

Called Ink'n Paint. Yep.

The actual problem is that you need the game to be able to detect edges, which is a sm3.0 'skill'. MnB uses 2.0 for as far as I know.

Or:

What I do know is that Shader Model 3.0 supports edge detection, and that it's included in the HDR package of Zaro's GE mod. You should check it out.