Make the chrome paint job actually chrome

[obidan66]

Description of the idea: Currently the chrome paint job is extremely dark if set to the lightest possible white neutral color, making the paint actually nowhere near what chrome should look like. The effect works well enough with color added to the paint job but does not work correctly without it.

Why should this be added? (pros):
-Make it more realistic
-Nicer looks
-More variety and options for players to customize their vehicles
-Fixing a rather unpleasantly looking paint job which is supposed to be the most expensive one

What negatives could this have? (cons): None, in my humble opinion.

*Images:

This is how chrome looks like at the moment when set to a neutral white color (very big bad)​

This is what chrome should look like...
​

 

[rogue]

the chrome paint job is way too expensive also for what it offers, smooth metallic is way better

 

[George]

+1

 

[Bnjemann]

Some people have pure white cars somehow, probably because they asked staff for them.

Adding pure white to the colour palette of vehicles would fix this issue.

 

[Tetra]

Do you know how resource intensivce this would be?

 

[Collier]

Cars already use cubemaps for reflections rather than exactly what is around them. It's the same thing that's done for scopes in CS:GO and the like as well as all reflective surfaces on the map

 

[rogue]

get zinged

 

[obidan66]

... So actually not that big of a deal not only performance-wise but to implement as well? @Collier (Hypothetically)

 

[Collier]

@obidan66 I am not sure how viable or easy it'd be code-wise, but maybe

 

[obidan66]

@Collier Maybe sounds good to me : )

 

[Collier]

@obidan66 Just to make sure I'm not talking out my ass, here is an image wherein the road and overpass are being "reflected" because I am close to it's cubemap

 

[Collier]

In fact, the screenshot you took of your Morgan on what looks like EvoCity shows this even better

 

[Smeris]

it's not because cube maps are pre-rended as opposed to screenspace reflections. Probed cubemaps also exist but are not designed into source engine sadly. a cubemap is litteraly a an unwrapped cube texture of it's surroundings, hence the name.

im not a source engine/hammer expert so i don't know why the cubemaps on paralake aren't as good as they could be

 

[StephenPuffs]

Just going to note a few things on this... First off, using your flashlight is the absolute worst for seeing any sort of reflections with how badly Source handles lighting or environment maps as it seems to destroy them badly.

Secondly, you must have some other settings turned off within your game as the chrome option for me looks nothing like yours (it may be a different time in the day but still).

I have debated changing the existing way that vehicle paint jobs are applied and look in general to create a more realistic means calculating the necessary material values, however this will cause some people's current paint jobs to possibly look vastly different than how they do now, so I have held off on this.

One last thing is that with certain paint jobs white values become very blown out and turn blindingly white with no sense of detail in the car's shape which is not ideal. Or it loses a lot of the identity which helps give a certain paint style the look we originally intended with it. Sadly the best way I have had to cope with this is by limiting just how bright it is possible to make a car which was lowered at one point, that's why some people have brighter cars.

Now that I have done some more tweaking with the day/night cycle last month and just recently TDM materials excluding the main car paint or the metals, I will look into possibly doing some changes to these soonish. This is both easy and not so much at the same time, however the way it's done right now is rather poor and why sometimes the preview does not always match the result. But this is on my list of things to look over at some point.

P.S.
Here's how bad the chrome looks if we allow pure white

Spoiler: White Car

 

[Clarky]

Is it mat_specular that changes how it may appear by any chance? A lot of people have that turned off in configs, not entirely sure what that does tbh.

 

[StephenPuffs]

It certainly doesn't help with having reflections. Most world issues with overly shiny things is now fixed, so mat_specular isn't as needed imo.