42 réponses à ce sujet

[Eguintir Eligard]

Shiny, happy, textures.

[Tchos]

That's what I mean about the darkened diffuse.  I was assuming PJ didn't have a greyscale height map to work with, though of course one could be generated from the normal map, but from looking at this pattern, I think a darkened greyscale copy of the diffuse map put into the alpha channel of the normal map would bring some nice results.

[PJ156]

I can use a greyscale version of the normal map but it is too light. Where I went wrong at the start was not using too dark shades. I kind of experimented around the 50% grey at first thinking it might be half the effect but it not linear. I did not start seeing good effect in game till the grey was very dark.

 

I have a plug in to create specular app for gimp which I will start to play with now I know what the end result needs to look like. In the end, this is a floor is a dusty environment. I don't want too shiny.

 

Thanks for the earlier and continued help.

 

PJ

[Tchos]

Ah, sorry, when I said that a height map could be "generated from the normal map" I meant by using the nVidia normal map plugin's option "convert to height map" that I previously mentioned in some other thread, not just changing a copy of the normal map to greyscale, which would have a very different effect.  I'm sure other normal map plugins or programs have a similar feature.

[Eguintir Eligard]

dont use a greyscale version of the normal map as a height map; its not. You can use a gray scale of the red channel or green channel of the normal map as a height map.

[Tchos]

Don't do that, because you'll lose either the horizontal depth or the vertical depth, depending on which you choose.

[PJ156]

In any case the grey scale is to light for these purposes.

 

I am going to try some different ideas once I get visio on Monday, does any one use any equivalent free software to that before I shell out (old copy not a new one)?

 

PJ 

[Dann-J]

In any case the grey scale is to light for these purposes.

 

 

Hence my original suggestion of using a gamma-reduced version.

 

I usually reduce the greyscale image to 0.9 of the original gamma, then keep repeating that (via a hotkey) until I get something that looks right. Occasionally I'll also tinker with the contrast, if dark areas get too dark before the light areas get dark enough.

 

It helps to look at the alpha channels of normal maps for models in the game you're familiar with. That way you can replicate effects you like in existing models, and avoid making the same mistakes for the normal maps you don't like. I spent a few hours one weekend trying to get one of the plate armour models (the halfplate with chainmail arms and legs) to tint consistently across several races and genders. The original tint maps and normal maps were all over the place, so the same item equipped on different characters looked quite different. Too much specularity seems to affect the way an item tints.

[Tchos]

And why I also kept saying that they should be darkened.

[PJ156]

Hence my original suggestion of using a gamma-reduced version.

 

 

 

Ha, advice made on the bold assumption that i knew what you were talking about.

 

I think I do now and will try it.

 

Thank you also Tchos, I also understand what you mean now. Problem is, when you are self teaching a lot of advice is out of context with your knowledge base so does not sink in until you start to understand the issues involved. For me, I had to jump the hurdle of understanding that, all my grey map adjustments were pointless because the scale was not linear. Once I started working in the 90%+ grey area it started to make sense.

 

I hope to pick this project up this evening, if I can get hold of some image manipulation software.

 

PJ

[TheOneBlackRider]

Just uploaded an easy to use tool for editing alpha (transparency):

 

http://neverwinterva...-tool-nwn1-nwn2

 

Maybe this makes things easier.

[PJ156]

Thank you, that looks really useful.

 

PJ

[PJ156]

Just as an add on to this for any who come across the same issues. I have been looking at retexturing for other projects and I can now see something I was doing wrong. 

 

The flaring I was seeing in the toolset and game were partly because I had my normal map set to 0% opacity.

 

I was looking at some stock maps and noted they were very opaque whereas mine were as generated in Paint.net. In the toolset I was getting the reflective textures I had issues with before regardless of the specular map.

 

So I set the opacity in the layer to around 30% and the issue went away.

 

One happy camper at this end

 

PJ

[rjshae]

In GIMP I do the following equivalent to the normal map:

1. Layer -> Mask -> Add Layer Mask...
2. Initialize layer mask to White (full opacity)
3. Pour a relatively dark gray (~25%) paint
4. Layer -> Mask -> Apply Layer Mask

For step 3 I can instead paste a specular image (if I have one) then Layer -> Anchor Layer (ctrl-H)

[PJ156]

Thanks RJS, I need to get up to speed with Gimp, I've invested a lot of time in paint.net now and it's hard to shift over. I tend to use gimp for specific tasks then copy back to Paint.

 

I am trying to round the corners on an object. In the past I have been told this is done in the texture but lightening the edge that you want to look less sharp. In the game textures they seem to do it in the normal map. Both make sense but I cannot get either to work for me?

 

Any tips for this from anyone?

 

PJ

[Tchos]

Do you remember this image?  (Better yet, here's a detail cropped to the relevant part.)  Focusing on the pile of stone blocks near the middle of the image to the right of the player character, you can see that those blocks have irregular, rounded-off edges, while in fact the geometry of those blocks are plain cubes without any rounded edges at all.  The effect is primarily in the diffuse texture, with just a little help from the normal map.  The diffuse map is painted as if the edges are a short distance away from the actual edge, and are made to match up with the other side.  The normal map simply gradates from up to down toward the edge.  It's easier to visually comprehend if you convert the normal to a height map, where you can see that it goes from white to black along the edges -- the same black to match up with the other side, creating an illusion of an indentation along the edge.

[PJ156]

Thanks, I do remember that now you bring it up again. I have started a thread on this to keep it searchable I hope you don't mind I copied your post across.

 

PJ

[Tchos]

I had already copied it across.