Why do custom models look plastic after latest Patch?

I don’t know what’s happened but custom models seem to look like they are now covered in a white plastic film. The lighting has gone from them, and they all look like they have this whitish plastic sheen over them or as if they;ve been bleached they are so bright.

It’s not a good look, please revert back to the way custom models were rendered before?
There are before and after lastest patch examples below (Remove x):
BEFORE PATCH
xhttps://imgur.com/G7Gti5P
AFTER PATCH
xhttps://imgur.com/uVVpL3W

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What mod is that? Looks amazing and ironically looks better than the maps in Reforged.

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Isn’t it something to do with the fog?

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The mod does look interesting, however the images are way too small and too zoomed out to even observe what you’re talking about imo.

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Look at the buildings (roof), compare the lighting.

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Yes, seems like some mod-specific stuff to me. It’s not the models themselves. Maybe the mod has some custom lighting set, or maybe it’s the fog.

Anyway, whatever the settings were - the update broken them. Happens too often with Warcraft 3 since release back in 2002…

Hello Narshi Thanks for the report! Could you zip up your Map folder and send us a copy to War3attachments@blizzard.com please? We’d like to investigate on our end.

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This is a generalized issue, not specific to him, happening to my maps as well, it’s due to the (I believe) shaders especially for SD models on SD/HD settings (default).

Does not happen on SD models on SD only settings.

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Psyche he meant the whole game😂

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Lycan - If you have maps that are reproducible this issue could you send them our way as well at War3attachments@blizzard.com?

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Alright I’ll send you a few of the maps that have the issue

Torelef what is your job (description wise)

Like what does a quality Assurant do?

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Hello Torelef, do you know if we’ll get more advanced settings option and more advanced terrain-environment like the 2018 demo?
Thanks.

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Sent the map, both in w3x (not protected) and folder (inside the zip)

im no expert for asset creation for the wc3 engine, but it looks like the reforged graphics engine (in reforged mode) expects a normal map + specularity mask on these models in a specific location or naming scheme, which they probably dont have.

the left picture in the original post shows some masked specularity (e.g. the stones vs the roof), while the mask is gone entirely in the 2nd screenshot.

its probably an issue on both ends.

  1. the engine doesnt find the specularity mask or doesnt apply it (if its there).

  2. the model might not be prepared to be used in reforged graphics lacking properly made specularity masks and normal maps in the right format at the right place, as classic graphics didnt support (specularity maybe?) it.

2 patches ago the models worked semi fine, they just had heavy shadows added on top of them by the reforged lightning engine, now they’re completely broken.

Hello, incredible and simpathic! Torelef! You can read this feedback from that quote to help the game? Thanks!

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that could also be an issue with incorrectly set up shader effects in the model or rather texture maps.

it all depends on how the engine handles models with missing / wrongly set up texture/shader maps. ill just assume wc3 grabs all the information out of greyscale masks for specularity with no source engine like material setup textfiles handling the intensity, filepath, applied effects etc.

now, a missing normal map could cause any sorts of issues aswell, especially with lighting. that could explain the “shadows”, as the normal map defines the “height” or “surface” of the texture for the shaders - if its missing it might be interpreted as “all flat low”, which kinda inverts the lighting on the object or other weird stuff. i really dont know the engine and how it handles the assets, but generally speaking it looks like incorrectly set up shaders in the old models, not a “bug” with the engine really.

they might have changed the behavior of the engine with incorrectly setup up textures / shader masks / missing normal maps.

the 2nd screen shows how exactly a flat normal map with no specularity mask applied looks and you shouldnt expect any different outcome.

@myhria get out with your ridiculous spamming. i flagged that post. you cant come into every thread and hijack it for your “2018 demo >> beta graphics” crusade.

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what are you even typing you’re just assuming random stuff for no reason, nobody really cares and the blizzard devs have access to the shader code.

I literally said it was a shader issue on my first post, I didn’t say it was a bug with the engine.

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im not assuming random stuff for no reason, its an educated guess as i have worked some years as a 2d/3d game dev on a source engine mod. its a different engine, so it works different, but theres an industry standard for how certain things are being done, and this also applies to wc3. ppl asked why the assets look like they do, and i elaborated the most likely reasons behind it. we dont have the source models and textures to look at, so guessing is really the only thing to do here.

you clearly didnt understand that the issue most likely is not reforged or the shader code or whatever, but the models used in the map. sending blizzard the map will not do anything, as blizzard wont fix the outdated custom models. you said the assets were semi-broken and now look totally broken - that also implies they never worked as intended, which is the more important information and rather implies a changed fall back mode of the engine rather than “breaking the models” as they apparently have been broken all the time in reforged. maps made for classic wc3 doing exactly that shouldnt come at surprise, as to reasons stated above.

its most likely a “user error” actually, introduced by the updated graphics engine. the only thing blizzard should do here is to release a guideline as how custom models or more specifically texture maps need to be made to be used with reforged graphics. fixing the models is the job of the creators.

you want the issue resolved, so you should care. resolving the issue includes using models meeting the requirements to be displayed correctly.

now if the models were specifically made for reforged, its a different thing. that would imply a problem with imported custom assets. but its safe to assume most maps showing this issue will be pre-reforged.

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