Crazy Bump 2.6

besides, although this program is nice and does a great job, theres still a alot of things that you can get better results from doing it by hand.

end of the day, time = money, tools like this reduce time spend= yay for dev.

Quote from Rick_D

lol JP and sindwiller - I suppose we should all be modeling and mapping in notepad because only amateurs use programs designed for the task at hand. :roll:

There's no Notepad for Linux D:

No, seriously. It's not just Crazy Bump. It's all this procedural stuff in general. Procedural texture generation, procedural model generation, procedural this, procedural that - Hell, I even know a guy who want's to get rid off his artists in his team because their "lazy asses" and "slow" etc. by replacing their stuff with procedural content. Everyone praises procedural textures these days.

And besides, .NET doesn't run on my box :roll:

well. thats all fine and dandy but at the end of the day someone has to use those programs that make procedural content. texture generation has to be made by artist. im dont think they will be using textures ingame made with a "Randomize" button.

its just toollsssss

Quote from Sindwiller

No, seriously. It's not just Crazy Bump. It's all this procedural stuff in general. Procedural texture generation, procedural model generation, procedural this, procedural that - Hell, I even know a guy who want's to get rid off his artists in his team because their "lazy asses" and "slow" etc. by replacing their stuff with procedural content. Everyone praises procedural textures these days.And besides, .NET doesn't run on my box :roll:

When PhilipK gets fired because a machine can do a better job than him, start getting worried. Until then, don't fret. Can you load up an application and type in "metal wall panel texture with 45 degree angles, bevelling, light fixture in the centre of size 64 pixels, rusted detail down the side, scratches along the skirting and a pimped out normal map please."? You could ask a good texture artist for that. I think genetica would be rather confused by such a request.

Procedural texturing is just another tool. It has its uses and will continue to improve; it can look good in places but ultimately it is still generic content controlled by buttons & sliders. It is no replacement for an experienced artist, but I'm willing to bet that a lot of artists will embrace it and use procedural content wherever they can without compromising the look of the game. It's the same as anything else -- how far do you want to go?

Do you spend 3 hours unwrapping a simple prop and getting the texture stretching to a state where it is nigh on perfect, or do you spend 20 minutes on it, make some compromises on quality (perhaps you don't unwrap a curved section particularly well so there is some stretching, but it's on the top / bottom / side / whatever, so it will rarely be viewed up close by the player) and then move on to texturing it or making the next prop? Every part of a game has these compromises and, if the developers strike a good balance, the chances are you won't even notice. If someone can use a procedural tool to generate content and it is either unnoticeable or barely noticeable, then it's a good decision. Spend the time where it counts. If a program can make a texture whose usage is low key, then you can spend that time you saved on something that is more visible. It's the old adage of "work smarter, not harder". Tools evolve to fill a hole and, if they're kickass, they change the way we work. If the tools suck or serve no appreciable purpose, then nobody will use 'em.

Another way to look at it:

You used to have to build a humanoid player model from scratch. It could take hours/days just to get the basic shape. Now you can use molding and extruding tools that are in just about any modeling package and get that shape done in minutes.

Shaders used to be written by hand. Now you can use GUIs to assemble them and test them on the fly.

Terrain used to take hours to make by hand. Now you can throw them down in UE3 with a few mouse clicks.

Efficiency is the name of the game.

Quote

Efficiency is the name of the game.

As long as controle is the same.

Quote from Sindwiller

As long as controle is the same.

...because all of a sudden, these programs will begin to control themselves! Maps, models and textures will be coming out on their own! Soon the machines will create their own game and publicise it for free! O what horror....

:roll:

Someone really needs to hire this guy, if he's not already employed that is. Anyone know out of interest?

I pretty much love him, he could have licensed out this program to companies for silly money and made it inaccessible to the masses (a la speedtree).

A free version of speedtree, how nice that would be...

Beta 3 contains features too powerful for primitive Earth-brains to comprehend:

-"Normals Mixer" blends normal maps together in 3D. (This works

much better than 2D blending in Photoshop.

-Savable presets!

-Remembers your preferences and window locations.

Humans are further instructed to post words and pictures in the new

beta testers' forum:

http://%7boption%7d

http://%7boption%7d

ace!

just keeps getting better :megaman:

Is there a way to load your own normal map for a defuse? Like I made a normal and fine edited it in Photoshop but I can't seem to load it in the preview thing

Yep. Go to options (little icon-bottom right I think) then theres some option to change your view to diffuse + normal.