• Launch Photoshop en open the image you need to work on, here I will use a door, example BDL_DOOR1, i used that one in my DM-Chicago2004SPE.
    As it is a DXT texture (DDS) you will need the Plugin from NVidia.
    A dialog box will open and ask to load MipMaps, say no.

  • Select all the parts you need to be shiny or illuminated as shown in the image and fill them with Pure Complete White, if you need it to be less translucent, glossy or illuminated make it more grey, except black.
    We will use black for the parts to remain non-affected by the effects.
    The example image will show more evidently what i mean.

  • When you have all the parts that you need to be affected by the effects painted white, go in photoshops menu and select : Window > Show Channels if not yet opened.
    You will see the already existing layers RGB separated and the RGB main channel.

  • click the eye to toggle the channel view while working

  • click the image field to toggle the channel you want to work on.

  • Now, with the selection filled in white, find in the channels rollup, at the bottom 4 icons, representing in order "load channel as selection","Save selection as channel", "Create new channel","Delete current channel".
    Choose "Create new channel", you will now see your new channel as the parts you just filled with white and black, in case i forgot to mention this, you will have to make remaining parts black that will not be affected by the effects in UED3.
    At this stage your image is ready for use as texture and alpha channel.

  • The left image show the alpha channel with the white parts and the black parts.
    As you can see and with what i said, only the black glass from that image will be affected by the effects, have a look at the images texture that will show the effective door texture.
  • In UED3, open the texture browser.
    Import your texture, here that door. Make it part of the MyLevel pack and if not done yet compress it to DXT3, but you should already have done so by saving it to DXT3 with photoshop.
    Now in the Texture browser, from it's menu select NEW and give your new texture an appropriate name like DoorShiny or somthing like that.
    In the large almost empty field in properties, select from the dropdown menu MaterialClass >>> Class'Engine.Shader' this should be the default class anyway.
    Then, far right click the "New" button.
    Your new texture is beeing created and it's properties window opens.
    This time you will see that the properties window is filled with options.

  • The first titel "Diffuse" allows you to select the main texture, this is the texture that you will see in game.

  • The "Opacity" allows you to select a texture that will produce the translucence on the main "Diffuse" texture, select a texture that has an alpha channel or else all will be opaq, considering no mask as all white, so all affected by effects

  • The "Specular" texture will allow you to select some texture environnement map texture, this is a new texture like "TexEnvMap", this is the one, togheter with it's cubemap that produces the moving shiny texture. (see TexEnvMap and Cubemaps for more info)

  • The "SpecularMask" texture will allow you to select some texture as mask for the shiny parts, this is mostly the main "diffuse" texture's alpha channel, as you can see in the image above.
    So, you can select here the same texture as the "diffuse" main texture, only it's alpha channel will be used.

  • The "SelfIllumination" is something similar to the old "unlit" option on surfaces in the old UED2, but far more interesting here is that, with the SelfIllumination you can select what part will be unlit and what will remain lit, by the selection of the SelfIlluminationMask
    You may select another texture for some special effects, just play around, the effects are immediate, so you will see what it produces.

  • The "SelfIlluminationMask" allows the selection of a texture containing the alpha channel of what parts are to be unlit, here it will be the same as for the SpecularMask.
    In the case of our door, only the black glass parts will be illuminated and the woodwork will be affected by the maps lighting.

  • The "Detail" texture allows you to choose some detail texture that will show when player comes close to that surface. Select some from UCGeneric or create one

  • The detailScale determines how big or small the detail texture will show.

  • OutputBlending allows for texture types like normal, transparent, brighten, darken modulated,masked.

  • TwoSided if you need it for Static Meshes, watch out, this is not by default and even by setting the texture to 2sided or chosing 2-sided in the flags, it will not remain 2-sided when you create from brush, it will not even work with this setting in the original texture, it only works in special textures.

  • Wireframe, well if you wanna have some fun of some weirdness, go ahead.

  • PerformLightingOnSpecularPass, if ligh update will affect the specular settings.

  • ModulateSpecular2X, if you want a darker Modulate effect than the simple Modulate effect.

  • FallBackMaterial, chose a texture to fallback for comps that cannot render this shader.

  • SurfaceType, here you can select from it's dropdown menu the sound that will be played when a player walks or runs or jumps on this surface.
    types are > - EST_Default
    - EST_Rock
    - EST_Dirt
    - EST_Metal
    - EST_Wood
    - EST_Plant
    - EST_Flesh
    - EST_Ice
    - EST_Snow
    - EST_Water
    - EST_Glass