6497 réponses à ce sujet

[saltisgood]

Hey guys, quick update. I've uploaded Part 5 of my tutorials:
Modifying the Normal Map



I know a lot of people (including myself) have had trouble modifying this particular texture, so hopefully this should help some people. I'm almost finished this series, so I'll be back to modding soon.

Also, for those of you who prefer written tutorials I've also typed up equivalent instructions on my blogs page. They're linked individually in each video description or you can click on these:
Part 1 - Import/ Export
Part 2 - Diffuse Map
Part 3 - Tint Map
Part 4 - Specular Map
Part 5 - Normal Map

[Daryst]

voodooseason wrote...

Thanks! :happy: I haven't yet, but I'm planning on it (along with some other facemods using Jack's diff/norm, Miranda's, Ashley's, etc. This one's Dr. Eva.). I'm still tweaking the diff a bit but it's perfectly usable at this point, so I'll go ahead and throw up a link for you. 

(BTW, If you like the really dark eye makeup, you'll need to mess around in Gibbed a bit for it to look exactly like it does in the pics. I pretty much just copied the numbers for the ME2 eyeshadow colors here.)

it looks great. thanks for this!

[Fredy AG]

saltisgood wrote...

Hey guys, quick update. I've uploaded Part 5 of my tutorials:
Modifying the Normal Map



I know a lot of people (including myself) have had trouble modifying this particular texture, so hopefully this should help some people. I'm almost finished this series, so I'll be back to modding soon.

Also, for those of you who prefer written tutorials I've also typed up equivalent instructions on my blogs page. They're linked individually in each video description or you can click on these:
Part 1 - Import/ Export
Part 2 - Diffuse Map
Part 3 - Tint Map
Part 4 - Specular Map
Part 5 - Normal Map

  Thanks for all that work !!

I'd like to add all the individual videos with pictures to the first page, but I've reached the limit of content (to add something new, I have to remove something else). 


But I've added a link to the first video (at the end of the post)...



Saludos.

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Modifié par smarteck, 23 septembre 2012 - 09:33 .

[Dead_Meat357]

Really enjoyed that normal map tutorial. Learned a bit about the normal maps and how to manipulate them better. I'll be updating most of my mods with new normal maps as a result.

One thing I'd like to add is that creating a new normal map in this way can remove some of the reflective properties contained in the original normal map. I'm not certain how to retain that feature through a completely new normal map. Ashley's armor for example as well as Liara's always has a certain shine to it. The only way I've found to retain it using the above outlined method is to do so with one modification.

Using the DirectX SDK texture tool, I can resize the original normal map to something that isn't pathetic. Then I can take the new one and apply it over the old one as an overlay, save as a BMP, then using the SDK tool, change the surface format back to what it  should be. This allows me to retain a higher quality normal map, and certain proprties contained in the original that I haven't been able to replicate otherwise.



The section I highlighted is with original normal map data retained. Without it, it has a flat finish identical to what the base texture used to make the new normal map has.

But I look forward to experimenting with these techniques. I can bring back the height to the paint on the Defender armor while keeping the artifact problem away now.

Modifié par Dead_Meat357, 23 septembre 2012 - 09:19 .

[Fredy AG]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...





 

Try with this file and tell me if it works: www.mediafire.com/ 



Salu2. 

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[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Smarteck: maybe you should start a new thread, and take the first five or so posts as your own? Then you could categorize it more efficiently and have no limit.

[saltisgood]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

Really enjoyed that normal map tutorial. Learned a bit about the normal maps and how to manipulate them better. I'll be updating most of my mods with new normal maps as a result.

One thing I'd like to add is that creating a new normal map in this way can remove some of the reflective properties contained in the original normal map. I'm not certain how to retain that feature through a completely new normal map. Ashley's armor for example as well as Liara's always has a certain shine to it. The only way I've found to retain it using the above outlined method is to do so with one modification.

Using the DirectX SDK texture tool, I can resize the original normal map to something that isn't pathetic. Then I can take the new one and apply it over the old one as an overlay, save as a BMP, then using the SDK tool, change the surface format back to what it  should be. This allows me to retain a higher quality normal map, and certain proprties contained in the original that I haven't been able to replicate otherwise.

The section I highlighted is with original normal map data retained. Without it, it has a flat finish identical to what the base texture used to make the new normal map has.

But I look forward to experimenting with these techniques. I can bring back the height to the paint on the Defender armor while keeping the artifact problem away now.

That's a good point. I kinda forgot to put that in the video tutorial, but I wrote it in the accompanying blog post. There are also some good articles I found on the net, with techniques for creating them. Such as this from the artists at Epic Games and also this from CG Textures.

[Fredy AG]

PKchu wrote...

Smarteck: maybe you should start a new thread, and take the first five or so posts as your own? Then you could categorize it more efficiently and have no limit.

I was thinking of removing individual downloads for "SITES, OBJECTS AND MACHINERY", that could greatly simplify the Post.


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[ElectronicPostingInterface]

I personally use the individual downloads for each project - loading all the mods for each location kills my game. I split my game into 3 "sections" for mods I load.

If you do remove them, you should still offer them as a thing you can download, just not in the main post.

[Fredy AG]

PKchu wrote...

I personally use the individual downloads for each project - loading all the mods for each location kills my game. I split my game into 3 "sections" for mods I load.

If you do remove them, you should still offer them as a thing you can download, just not in the main post.

soo.. better keep them.


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[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Playing more ME3, I got to Matriarch Aethyta. To my confusion, her face appears completely different for seemingly no reason.

I still barely know what I'm doing, but I copied the face map from ME2 and recoded it for ME3. There are major caveats: 1) you'll lose half resolution because I still am "lrn2mod", as it's a straight port 2) it only fixes the face structure, it oddly stays blue. I'm still trying to fix the normal coloration. You'll be able to identify her as the ME2 person at least, with some biotic skin hue fixes.

Link, if you want it: http://filesmelt.com...triarchFace.tpf

Modifié par PKchu, 24 septembre 2012 - 03:39 .

[PolBear]

smarteck wrote...

PKchu wrote...

Smarteck: maybe you should start a new thread, and take the first five or so posts as your own? Then you could categorize it more efficiently and have no limit.

I was thinking of removing individual downloads for "SITES, OBJECTS AND MACHINERY", that could greatly simplify the Post.


//////

If you only had post 2 also in this thread, you could just edit that post and move some of the stuff/zones over there. I guess deleting post 2 and post 3 in this thread is gonne be hard, but maybe ask a moderator ? Or since you have post 4 maybe there is a way to move it up to post 2. You could use post 2 for a MP section or something like that.. just a suggestion.

[SliPaladin]

So... no Thane in high res?

[SliPaladin]

Also not to sound like a dick but what's the point on having all these mods when we can't use them at the same time? I don't know how texmod works but I have a 4gig GPU, 8 gigs of ram and the game crashes when I load all the texture mods so far (except MP ones) without using FXAA. Maybe this can be fixed if we include different textures on one .tpf file.

[Daryst]

SliPaladin wrote...

Also not to sound like a dick but what's the point on having all these mods when we can't use them at the same time? I don't know how texmod works but I have a 4gig GPU, 8 gigs of ram and the game crashes when I load all the texture mods so far (except MP ones) without using FXAA. Maybe this can be fixed if we include different textures on one .tpf file.

I'm with SliPaladin here. It would be nice if some of the textures could be combined into packs.  If that helps them be reduced in size and decreases the loading times and performance. If not then so be it, but it would be nice.

[McRileyW]

I play ME2 these days with Texmod and Jean-Luc's textures and the game keeps crashing ...

I tried to repack but failed - for example, thane's face and clothes were totally messed up ...

[McRileyW]

Right now I am porting "3. Liara Default Suit in High Resolution 4096x4096:" to ME2 for the LOTSB mission. Two problems:

1, Did Smarteck make a HQ texture with Liara's face as well? I thought it was in the 1.2 version?

2, The armor doesn't look good in ME2 *with all 3 of smarteck's textures, like her shoulders and back in the screenshot. I guess either it is because of the different i-don't-know-what-it-is-called map, or ME2 and 3 have different alpha channel settings?

Thanks for your help.

Modifié par McRileyW, 24 septembre 2012 - 01:39 .

[Dead_Meat357]

Mass Effect 2's lighting is different than ME3's is. Normal maps and the orange / red / green texture are done differently. So while individual textures may port over, those other textures do not. At least that's my understanding.

[McRileyW]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

Mass Effect 2's lighting is different than ME3's is. Normal maps and the orange / red / green texture are done differently. So while individual textures may port over, those other textures do not. At least that's my understanding.

Thanks. I just tried JPG files with this texture pack. Still looks as in the screenshot.

Wish I can @Jean-Luc now He must know how to adjust these textures.

[Dead_Meat357]

That frosted look is what I've seen on textures which have their alpha channel's removed when they are supposed to have them. Most of the Defender Armor's individual textures can't be done with DXT1 compression for that reason. DXT3 compression with explicit alpha or DXT5 compression with interpolated alpha I believe will fix that.

Modifié par Dead_Meat357, 24 septembre 2012 - 02:50 .

[McRileyW]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

That frosted look is what I've seen on textures which have their alpha channel's removed when they are supposed to have them. Most of the Defender Armor can't be done with DXT1 compression for that reason. DXT3 with explicit alpha or DXT5 compression with interpolated alpha I believe will fix that.

I will try it with Nvidia's tool in PS. Should I just "save as" with smarteck's texture or I should adjust other settings in PS as well? Thanks.


UPDATE

Sorry, but not working in ME2:crying:

Modifié par McRileyW, 24 septembre 2012 - 02:54 .

[Dead_Meat357]

McRileyW wrote...

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

That frosted look is what I've seen on textures which have their alpha channel's removed when they are supposed to have them. Most of the Defender Armor can't be done with DXT1 compression for that reason. DXT3 with explicit alpha or DXT5 compression with interpolated alpha I believe will fix that.

I will try it with Nvidia's tool in PS. Should I just "save as" with smarteck's texture or I should adjust other settings in PS as well? Thanks.

Save as with Photoshop is fine with everything but the normal map. Save that as a BMP and convert it to signed16-bit: V8U8 in the DirectX SDK. That's the format that ME3 uses for normal maps. I'm not sure what ME2 does.

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

SliPaladin wrote...

Also not to sound like a dick but what's the point on having all these mods when we can't use them at the same time? I don't know how texmod works but I have a 4gig GPU, 8 gigs of ram and the game crashes when I load all the texture mods so far (except MP ones) without using FXAA. Maybe this can be fixed if we include different textures on one .tpf file.

I just had the problem personally and fixed it by making my own .tpf files.

There's a "texture load limit" in Texmod: if you run, I dunno, 90ish mods it'll crash. I don't notice major performance increases by only running one .tpf - I just need to have under the "danger zone."

I split my mods into three folders, because there isn't a need to run certain things all at once - it's a long game.

Someone awhile back posted a "collection" of several mods in one .tpf. You can probably find it with a google search restricted to this thread. It's probably got outdated and less pretty mods in it though.

If you try to make your own .tpfs, there is a texture limit to making one - too large and it will crash Texmod. I had to create several .tpf files of "packs" because I was unable to fix all my textures in one file.