Bump maps

#1 TSE doesn't really use bump maps, but the new skool "normal maps". A normal map is just an encoding of an xyz normal into each rgb value.

You rarely create these normal maps by hand, but rather make a greyscale bump map (height map really) and convert it into a normal map using a tool. At the moment i've had the most success using nVidia's PhotoShop Normal Map Plugin (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html).

The other method is to create a high detailed 3d model from which normals are extracted. This technique is commonly used for characters.

#2 Also don't save the normal maps in lossy formats like JPG. Use PNGs.

#3 After lots of messing about I have managed to get a normal map filter running in GIMP (the nvidia one doesn't work in anything other than PS and I use PSP). The problem I'm ghaving now is that all my textures look really glossy when the light is on them.
Does anyone know how to prevent this as I need them to be matt.

#4 Turn down the specular highlighting strenght?

#5 Specular[0] = false??

#6 There are three controls:

Specular[0] = false; .... this will just turn off specular which i'm not sure you want to do.

specular[0] = "1 1 1 1"; ... this controls the color of the specular highlight on the surface. I'm not sure what the alpha value does, but i haven't seen any effect messing with it.

specularPower[0] = 32.0; ... this is most likely what you want to tweak. 32 is a very reflective materail. I've been using a specular power of 2 or 3 for woods and rought stones.

You can read some about specular here.

#7 The alpha channel of the base texture will modulate the reflectivity from specular and cubemaps if you want per-texel control over such things.

#8 So it's like a single channel gloss map. Cool... i wondered about that.

#9 Thanks Brian, I figuired that out in the end, so the 'texture' is a colour map in TSE? If I set the transparncy to about 10% it become matt.

#10 Yes, the "baseTex" parameter for Materials is the diffuse color map.

Yes, the lower you set the alpha channel values, the less reflective the surface will become. 10% is very low, so yeah, it'll be pretty much matte.

If you don't have an alpha channel in your texture, the surface reflectivity is set to 1.0. The only way to reduce it then is to set a lower specular color. A higher specular power will reduce the size of the specular spot, but will increase its intensity a bit.

#11 I tohught it was the other way? Lower power was smaller spot but more intensity? Or am i confused?

#12 You are confused ;)

#13 Just somthing to note. Nvidia has a link to a filter for GIMP its located here: nifelheim.dyndns.org/%7ecocidius/normalmap/

Also if you wanna use the photoshop plugin with PaintShop Pro the intructions are here:download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/Paint_Shop_Pro_Steps.pdf

Or if your interested here is the link to the nvidia texture tools page developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html


Matt

#14 @matthew: The plugin doesn't work in psp and the gimp one needs compiling with loads of libraries.

If anyone else has got psp and needs the gimp one, i've got it pre-compiled email me and i'll send it to you.

#15 OH ya I never read the article I guess its for DDS support. Sorry for the mis_information.

Matt

#16 Oh.. so thats why all the textures in the demo are real light..:)

#17 The normal map creater that comes with the new HL2 SDK is very nice, although I do prefer the older build that came with the 'leak'.