As a developer, it is difficult to capture the way auto paint looks. Smooth Plastic is too uniform, Plastic is too rough, and metal is as well, and none have the sparkly look that automobile paint does.
With some noise and some curves, I have managed to replicate this look in Roblox:
It reflects slightly more than I would like, but it represents the kind of look I am looking for. Metal flakes paint, but probably a bit more subdued to make it more applicable to a wide variety of automobiles.
Modifications I would include: make specular map scale smaller so reflections are smaller and get rid of outlier low-reflectance pixels.
If you want to try it out, this is the specular map I use:
I do like this a lot, but admittedly the things I’d like to see more of is getting an extremely flat Matte Painted texture just because Smooth Plastic has too much reflectance and Plastic has all the bumps to it. (“Sheet Metal” Option)
And also a Gloss Painted option which has a look similar to glass without being so over-bearing with the reflectance. (“Fiberglass” option)
But still, very nice look you have going with a semi-gloss metal flake look.
I’d have to agree with George to an extent - a matte material would be a very nice addition - however a glossy material would be quite useful when making, for instance, some types of windows, that don’t look absolutely fantastic with the glass material (because it was mostly made for things like tables and such). If there were an automobile/fiberglass material in roblox, however, I think I’d want it to be a bit more glossy. I don’t really like the roughness put on the sample as it makes the car’s paint look somewhat worn. I think something with a sharp reflection and glossy specular map would look stunning.
Examples:
Especially that last one.
Side note: I got all those pics from models on Free3d.com. Obviously they were made with render engines, and not game engines, but something like the last one would look stunning on some roblox vehicles.
Furthermore there are so many more materials that, we, the car community, would love. I.E. Leather & Polished Metal. The current metal has a good color range for metals, but all the nicks and cuts look really goofy.
I’m not sure how you’re making your cars, but if you’re using a mesh it might work well if you put a transparent texture with some wrinkles for leather over a part with a matte finish (ofc we don’t have real matte, but something like smooth plastic might work). That way the leather would look more realistic. Ofc this requires UV Texturing skills, but hey If you know what you’re doing go ahead.
I’ve tried, you can only pull off leather well with a large texture map due to tileing issue, a normal map and specular map. What you guys are really asking for is shaders and more technical texture types. I would link my thread but I’m on mobile :x
Ahaha yea I’ve really wanted custom specular, ambient occlusion, displacement, etc material assets for a while. Perhaps we’d be able to upload the material assets (the image components) in bulk on the roblox website so people can search by materials only?
Obviously, what I posted does not have a high enough gloss in the background to match the paint in this image (which I think is a good example of what I want), but I was stuck with playing with noise and curves trying to get something close and that was the closest.
A high gloss material like the ones in your post I would settle for, but I would want a bit of point highlights as I’ve never seen cars, even show cars, with perfect paint.
I’ve found that Plastic’s matte reflections makes a decent enough leather for me.
Yea I agree with you, point highlights are a must. I don’t really like the MetalFlakes paint because it seems too specific for one purpose - a smooth gloss material would be a lot more versatile than sparkles (I’m not sure that image is an exact copy of the material you’re after, so if it’s not feel free to clarify) A high gloss material would be a good choice for when making things look like a new metallic color. The glittery texture would not be as good for making vehicles in my opinion, but it might work out in some other situations idk.
I’d even settle for like, just a polished version of the metal where it doesn’t look like it’s so nicked and damaged, and it had more shine to it.
