7 réponses à ce sujet

[LadyAryes]

I've never modded for Dragon Age before but I've tried my hand at retexturing the noble robe and I've come up against a problem. Basically my 'Diffuse map' seems to be working perfectly but my 'Normal map' is only applying to half the upper part of the item (the skirt is fine). Because I'm a newbie I'm hoping that its something really silly with an easy fix (like creating another half-map and inverting it or something).

 

Assuming I can get this problem fixed I will share it online with a few recolours.

 

Note: I am not using custom software. Just Photoshop with a DDS converter.

 

See image below where half of Isolde's body is in shadow. If you look closely you can see her chest has the original criss-cross pattern on one side. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Don't be afraid to dumb it down for me, I had no idea I needed to even create a normal map until an hour ago.

 

[DarthParametric]

Hard to say without seeing the textures, but if it's a normal map issue then I'm going to guess it was exported wrong. If you are using PS, do not use an external DDS converter. PS can handle DDS natively with the nVidia plugin - https://developer.nv...adobe-photoshop

 

Post your textures and we'll take a look. In the meantime, these may be of use:

 

http://social.biowar...Texture_Formats

 

http://www.nexusmods...age/mods/4019/?

[LadyAryes]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

 

Textures: https://www.dropbox....Dv2fF3gCC8LBota

 

I havent gotten around to creating the specular map yet but that couldnt be the issue could it? its weird because I'm having a different problem today with another outfit that is retaining its normal map (Ignoring the one I have in the override file).

 

Are there specific settings I should be using when I export the dds from PS? So far I've just been using DXT1 for the diffuse map and DXT5 for the normal map, I leave all the other settings as default.

[LadyAryes]

I'd been using the tutorial you linked and I've fiddled with the PS action (though it doesnt seem to have helped with this particular issue)

 

I applied a specular map (uploaded to the same dropbox folder) and it fixed the light reflection issue (the criss-cross pattern) but the half-body shadow is still there. Any ideas?

[DarthParametric]

Yes, your normal map is wrong. The alpha is white, so you are missing half your data. How are you generating your nomals? If you starting with tangent space normals (blue looking), use the PS Action I linked to in my previous post to convert it into the proper DA channel arrangement. Save it out as a DXT5 with Interpolated Alpha.

 

You'll want a spec map as well. The alpha controls the intensity, RGB controls the colour (although tints add some extra complexity). Use the vanilla model spec map as a guide.

 

Speaking of tints, you'll need a tint map even if you don't want to use armour/cloth tints because you have exposed skin. The alpha channel of tint maps is used for identifying skin areas. Again, use the vanilla tint map as a guide.

 

The general rule of thumb for textures for characters/clothes/armour/weapons is that any RGB maps are DXT1, and RGBA are DXT5.

[LadyAryes]

This is probably going to be a big face palm for you but I had no idea that the normal map worked like that. All I was doing was getting my diffuse map, putting it in greyscale and then 'embossing' it. How do people usually generate their normal maps?

[LadyAryes]

Woot. I ended up fixing the problem by coping my blue layer across to my alpha layer. It may not be comme il faut but its working and thats all I care about

 

I've got the tints working on another project so I guess I'll just bumble around with that until I have it working there as well. Thank you so much for pointing out that it was my alpha channel!

[DarthParametric]

Normal maps are used to simulate detail that doesn't physically exist in terms of a model's geometry by faking the light reactions as if that geometry did exist. The classic example is a brick wall. Your model may just be a flat polygon, but the normal map makes it appear as if there are sunken gaps between bricks where the mortar is, and various surface details on the bricks themselves. As such, the way a lot of highly detailed normal maps are generated is from actual geometry. You have a low poly mesh used in the game that shares UV space with a high poly mesh that you apply all the detail to (often in a sculpting program like ZBrush). The normals of the high poly mesh are used to generate the normal map which is then applied to the low poly mesh to give it the appearance of being a high poly mesh. In cases where you are either doing fairly subtle detail, or doing texture mods such as in your case, there are a couple of other avenues. These range from fairly low end brute force approaches using something like nVidia's PS filter (should be bundled in the tools I linked to earlier - Filters->nVidia Tools->NormalMapFilter), to middle of the road approaches like CrazyBump, to high end solutions like dDo/nDo.