This is a complete re-write of an older shader. The aim for this version was to accurately reproduce Valve's Hero shader, using the same parameters as the Workshop Tools Material Editor. In this version Blender and Valve shader settings are interchangeable, and DOTA2 models can now be rendered accurately in Blender using the same paramaters as the Material Editor.



Please also note this is only a user guide for the Blender shader, there are plenty of other resources on extracting models, importing, exporting, asset creation etc.

The following images show a side-by-side comparison of the shader next to the same model rendered in Valve's Material Editor.

Note: Shadows are not yet supported.

Nodes are colour coded as follows:

• Light setup nodes are coloured orange
  
• Texture nodes are coloured light or dark grey
  
• Nodes containing shader parameters are coloured light blue.
  Note: The shader has been split in half, as some features rely on warp textures that require intermediate calculations.

Textures are grouped together and colour coded based on colour mode. The following textures are available, note that not all of these are required:

• Normal map
  
• Albedo texture
  
• Fresnel Masks for specular, rim lighting and colour warp effects
  
• Shader masks (unused masks can be set to a fixed value)
  
• Transparency mask (if required)
  
• Warp textures for lighting effects (Diffuse and Specular warp, both optional)
  
• Face images for cube mapped reflections (optional)
  
• Colour warp textures (optional)
  
• Detail textures (optional)

This guide assumes a basic level of knowledge of Blender. Users should be familiar with setting up materials and textures, and working with material nodes. It also assumes that a model has already been successfully imported in to Blender.

• Assign material to the model
  
• Set up lighting nodes
  
• Load textures
  
• Set shader parameters

Each DOTA2 model may require several different materials to be applied. It is not necessary to modify any of the material nodes when creating a new material, only textures and shader parameters need to be updated.
Note: The shader has been tested with only one light. While three are available, the second and third lights should be considered experimental.

As Blender 3.0 no longer has a lamp input node, position and colour of lamps must be tracked either via drivers or entered manually. Lamps have been set up in the default .blend file, but will need to be added if the shader is imported into another project. A normalised light vector must be provided to the DOTA2 Base Shaders node, and the light colour must be provided to the DOTA2 Composite Shader. A Lamp Properties node has been provided to simplify setup.

• Point Vector calculates the light vector based on the lamp object position and the centre of the object being lit.
  
• Sun Vector calculates the light vector based on the rotation of the lamp object.
  
• Lamp Colour is a combination of the Lamp Colour and Lamp Power.

Note that lamp node inputs are hidden by default, use Ctrl+H to expose them.

Note: Not all textures will be required. Some textures depend on certain shader options being active.

Textures coloured light grey must be set to 'Non-Color' colour space for the shader to render correctly. Dark grey textures should use RGB colour space.


Load these textures as RGB:

• Albedo
  
• Detail1
  
• Detail2
  
• Specular Cubemap

Load these textures as Non-Colour:

• Normal Map
  
• Transparency
  
• Diffuse Warp
  
• Specular Warp
  
• Fresnel Masks
  
• Colour Warp 3D Textures
  
• Fresnel Colour Warp 3D Textures
  
• Shader Masks

1. UV Map
   Set the UV Map node to the correct UV map (generally map1 for DOTA2 assets).
   
   
   
2. Texture Remapping
   Albedo and detail textures can be remapped. Scaling, offset and rotation adjustments are available for Albedo and Detail1. Scaling and offset are available for Detail2.
   
   
   
3. Normal Maps
   Set the normal texture to "extend" to avoid artifacts in cubemaps.
   
   
   Ensure normal maps are in tangent space.
   
   
   In some cases it may be necessary to disable autosmooth for correct rendering.
   
   
   
4. Mask Textures
   Source1 (combined) textures use RGBA channels, the "S1 Mask Splitter" node group matches each channel to the appropriate mask and is provided for convenience.
   
   
   Source2 (individual) masks do not require separating and can be connected directly into the relevant node.
   
   
5. Transparency Texture
   If not required can be replaced with a full white texture.

The majority of shader parameters are found on the two main input nodes. These provide access to various parameters corresponding with those found in Valve's material editor, as well as mask and texture inputs.


The “Rotate World” parameter has been provided for altering the 'up' direction in Blender, as by default the shader will use the positive Y direction for “up”. There is no equivalent setting in Valve's material editor. This affects rim lighting and the specular cubemap.


Overbright acts as a global scale factor for the shader.

These parameters control diffuse lighting and colour.



Must be enabled by setting Colour Warp to 1.
Colour warp is applied to the entire albedo (i.e. the entire model), and is controlled by a 3D warp texture and the colour warp blend factor.

Note: Diffuse warp cannot be used as well as Specular Warp or Fresnel Colour Warp.

Must be enabled by setting Diffuse Warp to 1.
Diffuse warp maps diffuse lighting to a warp texture. Diffuse light in the range 0-1 is mapped to the horizontal axis of the texture.
The Diffuse mask is mapped to the vertical axis of the texture, and can be used to select different gradients.




Note: Fresnel Colour Warp cannot be used as well as Diffuse warp.

Must be enabled by setting Fresnel Colour Warp to 1.
Fresnel colour warp is applied to the albedo, and is controlled by a 3D warp texture and the fresnel warp colour texture.
Fresnel Colour Warp can be combined with Colour Warp. Colour Warp is applied first, and Fresnel Colour Warp is applied to the result.


Ambient controls how lighting is applied in shadowed areas. The colour is determined from Ambient Colour, and Ambient Scale controls the intensity. Sky blue is the default colour in the material editor.

Ambient colour is also used for rimlighting.

These parameters control specular lighting and colour.



Scale fixed at 5

Exponent fixed at 5


Note: Specular Warp cannot be used as well as Diffuse Warp.

Must be enabled by setting Specular Warp to 1.
Specular warp is controlled by a warp texture and the specular exponent mask. The specular exponent parameter is not used. Specular reflections in the range 0-1 are mapped to the horizontal axis of the texture.
The specular exponent mask is mapped to the vertical axis of the texture, and can be used to select different gradients.

By default, the cubemap is added to the specular component and is affected by specular colour as well as fresnel and specular masks.


Cubemaps can be loaded as individual images or as a single combined image. Orientation for cubemap faces follows Valve's layout as shown below:



The CubemapUVMapping node is provided for convenience. It modifies the cubemap UVs to select the correct regions from a combined cubemap. If cubemap faces are loaded individually, this node is not required.



If Mask By Metalness is used, the cubemap is no longer affected by specular colour or masks. Intensity is controlled by the metalness mask, and the result is combined with diffuse and specular as a separate component.

Rim lighting is based on the ambient colour, and is controlled by the Rim Light Colour and Scale parameters and the Rim Light and Fresnel Rim masks.


Note: Rim light colour is multiplied with the ambient colour, this will affect the overall hue.

Application of detail textures is controlled by Detail Tint, Mode and Blend Factor.



Note:Mod2x is only available for Detail 1.

The shader can be downloaded here[www.blendswap.com]