Are Dyes Also Shaders?

[Zoe.8310]

Some speculation for any texture artists out there:

Under the hood, are the Dyes more than just an RBG value applied to the diffuse map? Or do you think some/all also color the specular/bump maps, too? I doubt there is any actual shaders applied to them, so I imagine it's just additive color to one (or more) of the maps?

[Cleopatra.4068]

Well, applying color is done with a pixel shader, so in that sense they are shaders.

[Zoe.8310]

@Cleopatra.4068 said:Well, applying color is done with a pixel shader, so in that sense they are shaders.

Well - I guess I was more asking if there were per-dye shaders, as opposed to all dyes being calculated via the exact same shader.

[Panda.1967]

Given the fact that certain dyes impact how lighting affects the armor segments, they absolutely do include specular map changes.

[Zoe.8310]

@Panda.1967 said:Given the fact that certain dyes impact how lighting affects the armor segments, they absolutely do include specular map changes.

Do you think then that it's safe to say that dyes only affect the 2-3 maps, and not actual shader changes?

[Panda.1967]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@Panda.1967 said:Given the fact that certain dyes impact how lighting affects the armor segments, they absolutely do include specular map changes.

Do you think then that it's safe to say that dyes only affect the 2-3 maps, and not actual shader changes?

I would, if a dev hadn't already explained in another topic before how dyes work. This was posted by a dev either on the old forums or on reddit, and then reposted by a player on the new forums a while back in regards to adding dye channels to back pieces...

On its face doing this sounds like a great idea, since this is what fans want. As a fellow player I'd like this as well, but unfortunately our systems were not designed with this in mind. Not only would we have to go back and code each item so it can have dye channels/sufficient UI and prepare for the veritable bugfest that would ensue from altering a system that has years of work built on top of it, but we'd also have to retexture these items. Why? Our dye system is balanced around a red base color which has an impact on how every other color will appear when a channel shifts to it. Anyone who has played with dodging/burning in photoshop will know that red has some strange properties when it comes to shifts in values. Many dyes would have blown out/dull/oddly saturated textures as a result.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's SO much more to the process that I don't have a firm grasp on.

The devs here are gamers and we love what we do. We want fans to get excited about what we make because we're fans, too. However, we have players clamoring for every fix/feature under the sun so we have to do a ton of prioritizing. Game development is never plain and simple.

From the bolded bit, I can honestly say, it's highly unlikely that the shaders are not changed.