Shader question

[SCLJim]

Hi everyone. I have another noob question as I work a little more with the shader system. I think I already know the answer but I wanted to get some clarification in case someone may know something I've missed.

The question would be, is there a shader setup in RW that allows for diffuse, spec, normal, and alpha punch through? From what I have read in the docs the answer is no, since the spec is plugged into the diffuse alpha. If that is the case, I am completely confused as to why the spec doesn't have its own separate input, apart from the diffuse alpha.

[Kali]

The answer as you guessed, is no. No bumpy glass for you! which is perhaps the answer, because you'd have to distort everything rendered behind it and that might be just a little computationally expensive. Having seperate specular and normal maps for every texture also starts eating memory quite fast.

[SCLJim]

Thanks for the quick reply! Lol I wasn't actually thinking in terms of bumpy glass. What I had in mind was for the woodrack I'm working on. The sides of the wood load are done with an alpha punch so I could avoid tying up a lot of geo in the outline of the individual logs. I was hoping there was some way that I could give a little variation to the ends of the logs with a normal map and still have the alpha punch.

[Kali]

There is "LoftBumpAlpha" which from the name and little description seems to have all the components you'd want ( you don't really need specular map for wood, do you? ), but a) it doesn't appear to be documented at all, and b) I've absolutely no idea what using a loft shader on a non-loft element would do...