Message edited by: ket 04/15/2012 15:10:33
Messages: 1432
How To: Make bump maps in SoC
This is something that keeps popping up lately so I figured I would give people a very straightforward way to making bump maps.
What you will need:
Paint.net
Photoshop
nvidia DDS plugin for photoshop
1. Open normal texture in Photoshop
2. Filter > NVIDIA Tools > Normal Map Filter
3. Height Generation: 9x9, Height Source: Average RGB, 3D View: Animate Light, Alpha Field: 1.0. Click OK.
4. Save texture as DXT5NM
5. Open texture in Paint.net
6. Adjustments > Invert Colours
7. Save texture as texturename_bump#
8. Adjustments > Levels, deselct Red & Blue channels, move slider all the way to the top
9. Select Blue channel, input 0.55 into Output Gamma field
10. Adjustments > Hue / Saturation, increase saturation to 155
11. Save texture as texturename_bump in DXT5
Done.
Its really that easy. Do note all of those steps you can do in Photoshop but I've found it faster to use paint.net for some of the steps as its a lot faster at saving DDS files than the nvidia plugin is.
SetaKat
Ex modder, Zones only ferret and will someday release a game (Resident)
On forum: 02/20/2010
Messages: 6340
Managed to kinda hack up a rather crap bump map using just Paint.NET and a variety of plugins.
Will spend time refining what needs to be done, then I'll post instructions and any plugins needed.
GL with that, Paint.net isn't good at making bump maps from scratch, Gimp can, but its kinda a pain. Gimp does have a normal map filter plugin that works well though.
I share a bump mapping tutorial in pdf form, 74 pages with 74 pictures... but the explanations are in russian. I couldn't find the english version, it was deleted during the fbi rampage on the internet.
Heres a copy/paste from the tutorial I just wrote.
What you will need:
Photoshop with nvidia DDS plugin
or
Gimp 2.6 with DDS plugin
&
Paint.net
You can make bump maps by only using one of the above applications but for the sake of ease and speed I recommend a combination of Photoshop and Paint.net.
Step 1.
Open your texture in Photoshop, then go to Filter>Nvidia Tools> Normal Map Filter
Step2.
Next, in the Nvidia Normal Map Filter window make sure the following options are selected;
Height Generation: 9x9
Height Source: Average RGB
3D View Options: Animate Light
Alpha Field: Set to 1.0
Tip!
The Scale field in the Height Generation box-out is for the level of bump detail, generally 3 is best.
Now save the texture as DXT5NM.
Step3.
Open your texture in Paint.net;
Adjustments>Invert Colours
Save texture as texturename_bump# as DXT5
Adjustments>Levels
In the Levels window deselect the red and blue channels and move the slider in the Output Field all the way to the top. Now select the blue channel and in the Gamma Field (middle box) input a value of 0.55. Finally, the very bottom slider in the Output Field adjust until the value in the bottom box is 128.
Step4.
Now click;
Adjustments>Hue/Saturation
Move the saturation slider all the way to 200. Now save as texturename_bump in DXT5. Thats it! You have just successfully created a bump map for your texture!
Does this texture have to be somehow assigned to the model? If so, would you do it before saving it as a .object file, or once it's in the level editor?
Or does it assign automatically, due to the name?
I ask because when I placed the .dds texture in the "Import" folder, the level editor did not seem to recognize it.
I ended up manually pasting the bump map into the textures folder nder Gamedata.
In-game, my model is there, with the correct texture, but it does not seem to be bumped correctly.
Does this texture have to be somehow assigned to the model? If so, would you do it before saving it as a .object file, or once it's in the level editor?
Or does it assign automatically, due to the name?
I ask because when I placed the .dds texture in the "Import" folder, the level editor did not seem to recognize it.
I ended up manually pasting the bump map into the textures folder nder Gamedata.
In-game, my model is there, with the correct texture, but it does not seem to be bumped correctly. ---END QUOTATION---
In import folder you place raw .tga texture and asign normal or bump map and le bake a .dds texture in level_editor/gamedata/textures/foldername.Did you add your textures to textures.ltx properly?
14:21:05 15 April 2012
