shader_transparent_generic (Xbox)

Edit

The shader_transparent_generic tag is used in the Xbox version of the game for a large number of materials, such as jackal shields, teleporters, control panels, Cortana, and more. Instances of this shader were replaced with shader_transparent_chicago and shader_transparent_chicago_extended when the game was ported to PC, but these shader types cannot fully replicate original appearances.

Only the original Xbox version of the game supports this shader. While Guerilla and Tool allow creating these tags and building them into maps, they are invisible in the PC port and all of its derivatives like MCC.

Replication

Most of these shaders can be accurately recreated using extra layers and/or 4x4 "tint" bitmaps for recoloring the output of the shader.

Some other shaders will need small 256x4 gradient tint bitmaps that are animated to slide back and forth to tint the shaders output a blend of two different colors.

The most complex of the shaders can only be recreated using very large animated bitmaps that have had all their output pre-computed for each frame of the animation, however these can't be timed properly and are inefficient.

The Refined project attempts to recreate classic Xbox visuals by improving transparent shaders using these techniques.

Structure and fields

This tag inherits fields from shader which are not shown here. See the parent's page for more information. The following information is unique to the shader_transparent_generic tag.

Field Type Comments
numeric counter limit uint8
shader transparent generic flags bitfield
Flag Mask Comments
alpha tested 0x1
decal 0x2
two sided 0x4
first map is in screenspace 0x8
draw before water 0x10
ignore effect 0x20
scale first map with distance 0x40
numeric 0x80
first map type enum
Option Value Comments
2d map 0x0
first map is reflection cube map 0x1
first map is object centered cube map 0x2
first map is viewer centered cube map 0x3
framebuffer blend function enum
Option Value Comments
alpha blend 0x0
multiply 0x1
double multiply 0x2
add 0x3
subtract 0x4
component min 0x5
component max 0x6
alpha multiply add 0x7
framebuffer fade mode enum
Option Value Comments
none 0x0
fade when perpendicular 0x1
fade when parallel 0x2
framebuffer fade source enum
Option Value Comments
none 0x0
a out 0x1
b out 0x2
c out 0x3
d out 0x4
lens flare spacing float
  • Unit: world units
lens flare

TagDependency: lens_flare
extra layers Block
  • HEK max count: 4
Field Type Comments
shader

TagDependency: shader
maps Block
  • HEK max count: 4
  • Max: 4
Field Type Comments
flags bitfield
Flag Mask Comments
unfiltered 0x1
u clamped 0x2
v clamped 0x4
map u scale float
map v scale float
map u offset float
map v offset float
map rotation float
  • Unit: degrees
mapmap bias float
  • Min: 0
  • Max: 1
map

TagDependency: bitmap
u animation source enum?
u animation function enum
Option Value Comments
one 0x0
zero 0x1
cosine 0x2
cosine variable period 0x3
diagonal wave 0x4
diagonal wave variable period 0x5
slide 0x6
slide variable period 0x7
noise 0x8
jitter 0x9
wander 0xA
spark 0xB
u animation period float
  • Unit: seconds
  • Default: 1
u animation phase float
u animation scale float
  • Unit: repeats
  • Default: 1
v animation source enum?
v animation function enum?
v animation period float
  • Unit: seconds
  • Default: 1
v animation phase float
v animation scale float
  • Unit: repeats
  • Default: 1
rotation animation source enum?
rotation animation function enum?
rotation animation period float
  • Unit: seconds
  • Default: 1
rotation animation phase float
rotation animation scale float
  • Unit: degrees
  • Default: 360
rotation animation center Point2D
Field Type Comments
x float
y float
stages Block
  • HEK max count: 7
  • Max: 7
Field Type Comments
flags bitfield
Flag Mask Comments
color mux 0x1
alpha mux 0x2
a out controls color0 animation 0x4
color0 source enum
Option Value Comments
none 0x0
a 0x1
b 0x2
c 0x3
d 0x4
color0 animation function enum?
color0 animation period float
  • Unit: seconds
  • Default: 1
color0 animation lower bound ColorARGB
Field Type Comments
alpha float
red float
green float
blue float
color0 animation upper bound ColorARGB?
color1 ColorARGB?
input a enum
Option Value Comments
zero 0x0
one 0x1
one half 0x2
negative one 0x3
negative one half 0x4
map color 0 0x5
map color 1 0x6
map color 2 0x7
map color 3 0x8
vertex color 0 diffuse light 0x9
vertex color 1 fade perpendicular 0xA
scratch color 0 0xB
scratch color 1 0xC
constant color 0 0xD
constant color 1 0xE
map alpha 0 0xF
map alpha 1 0x10
map alpha 2 0x11
map alpha 3 0x12
vertex alpha 0 fade none 0x13
vertex alpha 1 fade perpendicular 0x14
scratch alpha 0 0x15
scratch alpha 1 0x16
constant alpha 0 0x17
constant alpha 1 0x18
input a mapping enum
Option Value Comments
clamp x 0x0
1 clamp x 0x1
2 0x2
1 2 0x3
clamp x 1 2 0x4
1 2 clamp x 0x5
x 0x6
x 1 0x7
input b enum?
input b mapping enum?
input c enum?
input c mapping enum?
input d enum?
input d mapping enum?
output ab enum
Option Value Comments
alpha discard 0x0
alpha scratch alpha 0 final alpha 0x1
alpha scratch alpha 1 0x2
alpha vertex alpha 0 fog 0x3
alpha vertex alpha 1 0x4
alpha map alpha 0 0x5
alpha map alpha 1 0x6
alpha map alpha 2 0x7
alpha map alpha 3 0x8
output ab function enum
Option Value Comments
multiply 0x0
dot product 0x1
output bc enum?
output cd function enum?
output ab cd mux sum enum?
output mapping color enum
Option Value Comments
color identity 0x0
color scale by 1 2 0x1
color scale by 2 0x2
color scale by 4 0x3
color bias by 1 2 0x4
color expand normal 0x5
input a alpha enum
Option Value Comments
zero 0x0
one 0x1
one half 0x2
negative one 0x3
negative one half 0x4
map alpha 0 0x5
map alpha 1 0x6
map alpha 2 0x7
map alpha 3 0x8
vertex alpha 0 fade none 0x9
vertex alpha 1 fade perpendicular 0xA
scratch alpha 0 0xB
scratch alpha 1 0xC
constant alpha 0 0xD
constant alpha 1 0xE
map blue 0 0xF
map blue 1 0x10
map blue 2 0x11
map blue 3 0x12
vertex blue 0 blue light 0x13
vertex blue 1 fade parallel 0x14
scratch blue 0 0x15
scratch blue 1 0x16
constant blue 0 0x17
constant blue 1 0x18
input a mapping alpha enum?
input b alpha enum?
input b mapping alpha enum?
input c alpha enum?
input c mapping alpha enum?
input d alpha enum?
input d mapping alpha enum?
output ab alpha enum?
output cd alpha enum?
output ab cd mux sum alpha enum?
output mapping alpha enum?

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following individuals for their research or contributions to this topic:

  • Kavawuvi (Invader tag definitions)
  • MosesOfEgypt (Tag structure research; Replication techniques)