The Main Menu
This is the main control center of SuperJSON.
- File Management
- Material Listing
- Colour Editing
- Culling
- Dithering
- Texture Slots
- Other Menus
- The Progress Bar
SuperJSON has 3 main types of file Management: Open a JSON | Save a JSON | Export a JSON. This section will cover all of these.
Clicking this button will prompt you to select the Material.json
Note: The Material.json will not load if it is formatted incorrectly
Clicking this button will prompt you to choose a location and filename to save the Material.JSON
Note: When saving, 2 files are written at the same time, you'll get a warning for overwriting the first file, but not the second, so be careful!
Clicking this button will prompt you to save your Material.json (See Saving). After saving, it will scan for missing textures and take you to the Export Menu.
Note: You won't be able to export if there are missing textures!
SuperJSON has a fairly easy material interface, but seeing as it's a thing, it needs some explanations for the ones who are not-as-educated yet. This section will cover all the features.
This is the leftmost box in the Main Menu. It lists every material you have loaded at any point in time. You can select a material simply by clicking it. When you click it, a few things happen, the more notable one is the 8 boxes on the right of the Main Menu. Those are the selected material's Textures. The next things that change, are the Colours located in the middle of the Main Menu.
Note: It's been reported that material.json has more materials than fit on screen. Fear not, as when you have more than 20 materials, a scrollbar will appear automatically
Just above the Material List are two buttons: [+] & [-] The Add button & Remove Button.
Pressing the Add button will prompt the "Open Material.json" to appear, where you can select a different material.json. Once you select the new material.json, the new materials will get added after the materials that are already present.
Pressing the Remove button will disable the Material List and delete the selected material. Once it has finished deleting, the Material List will re-enable itself.
Note: A deleted material is gone forever, so be aware of which material you have selected when you press Remove
Just under the Material List is a text box that displays the selected material's name. Changing the text will change the material name.
Note: Spaces are not allowed in material names, they will be replaced with underscores
To link a material to your model, you must have a material of the same name on your model. For example, if your model has a material called "Grass" the material name in SuperJSON should also be "Grass".
Warning! Having two materials with the same name could possibly have unintended side effects
There are 4 types of colours: 2 Material Colours | 2 Ambient Colours | 4 TEV Colours | 4 KONST Colours. Each of these colours can affect your material in different ways, but first here is how to edit them.
The Material Colours have a HEX colour input and a Colour Picker GUI for you to choose from. The Colour Picker GUI is accessed with the button just right of the Material Colour Slot list.
Note: You can use the [-] button to the left of the Colour Picker GUI button to delete the 2nd Material Colour. You can add it back with the [+] button on the right of the Colour Picker GUI button
The Ambient Colours have a HEX colour input and a Colour Picker GUI for you to choose from. The Colour Picker GUI is accessed with the button just right of the Ambient Colour Slot list.
Note: You can use the [-] button to the left of the Colour Picker GUI button to delete the 2nd Ambient Colour. You can add it back with the [+] button on the right of the Colour Picker GUI button
The TEV Colours have a HEX colour input and a Colour Picker GUI for you to choose from. The Colour Picker GUI is accessed with the button just right of the TEV Colour Slot list. The alpha can be changed with the number just right of the Colour Picker GUI button.
Note: TEV Colour editing is very buggy at the moment
The KONST Colours have a HEX colour input and a Colour Picker GUI for you to choose from. The Colour Picker GUI is accessed with the button just right of the KONST Colour Slot list. The alpha can be changed with the number just right of the Colour Picker GUI button.
There are 4 different culling modes: None | Front | Back | Both
Show both sides of a face
Show the Backside of a face
Show the Frontside of a face
Don't show the face at all
Tip: If you are modeling in Blender, you can view your model as if it were using the BACK cull mode by pressing [N] and checking the "Backface Culling" option in the Shading area. More Info
Dithering is the process of juxtaposing pixels of two colors to create the illusion that a third color is present - The most common means of reducing the color range of images down to the 256 (or fewer) colors. Checking the checkbox will turn on Dithering.
Note: There are no settings for dithering other than turning it on and off. There should be a practical use for it if you're creative enough
A material can have up to 8 textures. Textures are visually shown in SuperJSON as three states:
- A grey X -> Empty Texture Slot
- A red ? -> Missing texture
- The actual texture - > Occupied texture slot
Note: Textures are ordered as:
- 1 2
- 3 4
- 5 6
- 7 8
When you hover your mouse over an image, it will say either "Right click to delete" or "Click to add". if it doesn't say anything, then there are no actions you can do to that slot. Adding a texture is done by clicking the slot that says "Click to add"
Note: There will only be one texture slot that ways "Click to add" unless you are already using all 8 texture slots
After clicking the empty texture slot, you'll be brought to the Texture Settings Menu via the [Texture Header Selection Panel].
Removing textures is as easy as right clicking a texture slot. If more then one texture slot use the same texture, the texture settings will not be removed.
Note: When you delete a texture, there's no getting the TEV Stage back, so be careful!
There are a few other menus accessed through the Main Menu
TEV Stages are what gives the material it's looks. A new one is made for every new texture in the material, and is edited in the TEV Stage Manager
Indirect Stages are significantly more advanced than TEV Stages and are not required for basic materials. These are edited in the [Indirect Settings]
Swap Tables can switch colour values around to alter an images colour for effects like greyscaling an image. These are edited in the Swap Table Manager
This progress bar is located on the bottom of the Main Menu. The colour changes depending on what is happening at the time.
- Green - The program is doing background work
- Yellow - The program is waiting for something - Usually user input
- Red - There was an error with the background work
- Blank - There is nothing going on in the background