[Archived - DiamondBones] Why does "Self illuminate" make texture darker for Emission?

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Posted by “DiamondBones” on June 28, 2023.

[Archived]

Emission Dark Self illumiSelf-illuminate On (appears darker, but looks more like original texture)

imageSelf illuminate OFF (dark areas appear lighter than original texture)image 

One of my pet peeves for Emission is that it automatically makes all my pitch black zones a tone lighter, even if the Emission Map has that area the blackest black there is. Like there's no way to turn it off in places I want on my map.

 

But, when I select the Self Illumination feature on, it makes my entire texture darker, yet the Emission still functions properly.

 

Was this on purpose?

 

Thx for anything

Dia

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Community posted 9 months ago Admin

Posted by “DiamondBones” on June 30, 2023.

[Archived]

ahhh ok! So if there's light in the room, it will shine on all products, and all the shininess map does is help us control how that happens, and self-illuminate blocks it.

 

Will there ever be a time where we can have pure darkness as a base and a shine adding light to it? Or must it begin at a few tones lighter for the base in order for shine to cast on it, because it somehow needs to control where the darkest part will land in order for it's light to seem lighter? wait a moment...

imageNo, my bad. No true darkness on the sides in the back. Hm.

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Community posted 9 months ago Admin

Posted by “Drosselmeyer” on June 29, 2023.

[Archived]

Hi @DiamondBones​, Ah. The same thing applies when there is not shininess. Even with no shininess objects will be getting lit by the lights present in the room/scene. Once you turn on 'Self Illuminate' it says "ignore all lighting for this material" and it displays the diffuse map colors at 100%. Here is an example with solid black textures for both the diffuse and the emission. Notice how the entire cube looks flat black when Self Illuminate is turned on.

emission-self-illuminate-comparison

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Community posted 9 months ago Admin

Posted by “DiamondBones” on June 29, 2023.

[Archived]

Thank you!

What about when there is no shininess map added?

 

image 

imageI will try pure black now.

 

(no self illumination)

imageWith self illumination:image 

I think I've misunderstood, because I'm sure this is the blackest black my computer can make.

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Community posted 9 months ago Admin

Posted by “Drosselmeyer” on June 29, 2023.

[Archived]

Hi @DiamondBones​, I think there are a couple factors:

First, It looks like you have a shininess map. With Self-Illuminate turned on all shininess get turned off. Basically 'Self-Illuminate' has nothing to do with illumination. What it is in fact is telling the renderer to draw the Diffuse map 100%, (and by that fact, ignore all lighting, which is what shininess depends on to make something reflect light). Emission on the other hand is added after the lighting to make a surface appear to glow. So what I think is happening is that when you have it set to Self-Illuminate any additional highlights or brightness from the shininess goes away and so it appears to get darker.

Second, Unless your pitch black areas are 100% black i.e: 0,0,0 RGB, they will get lighter when you use any amount of emission (unless the emission map is also 100% black). The general rule I follow when using 'Emission' is to make the diffuse map darker than I would think it should be and the emission also dark. With the emission map dark you have more room for adjustment using the slider.

I hope this helps. Cheers.

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