Idiot Proof Normal Mapping

[sensee]

Anything that juts out from the wall less than 6 inches should be a height map (black and white image) and this counts divots, scratches, woodgrain and subtle changes in the surface of materials.

what kind of highmap do you mean?

the only highmaps i know in this context are those for bump maps and those for parallax mapping. both of them are not supported by the source engine and as far as I know, bump maps have been pretty much replaced by normal mapping.

[kleinluka]

i guess he means the height (greyscale) map that is used to convert the image into a normalmap..

btw peris remove that sig...

[sensee]

maybe it's just me, but that doesn't make sense regarding the previous sentence

Anything that juts out from the wall more than 6 inches uses a normal map (and will require you to make that map piecemeal in photoshop with that filter by hand, not by filtering the entire image, or by making a model for it)

postman please explain

/the low rider hitler somehow disturbs me more than peris' calvin and hobbes

[Pericolos0]

i have no idea why i should remove my sig

[Zyn]

Do a CTRL+F5 refresh, the signature is gigantic >_>

[Pericolos0]

holy shit

well played dissonnance

[Spellbinder]

GJ squirrel!

I don't know if i ever going to do these kind of things but i apreciate the sharing

Also a small tip or whatever you want to call it.

You say you can't place anything underneath the background layer in photoshop.

Well you can if you unlock the layer OR copy it first and then throw away the original/locked layer.

Spellbinder.

dupe the background layer, then paint over the bottom one?

No, duplicate the background layer that often is locked, and you get a unlocked copy of it and then you can put layers under it and throw away the original.

You can't put layers under the original because it is locked.

And sure yes you can paint over it aswell as soon as it is unlocked.

Spellbinder.

[The Postman]

i guess he means the height (greyscale) map that is used to convert the image into a normalmap..

btw peris remove that sig...

Sort of. Heightmaps (greyscale images like you said) don't HAVE to be an exact match to the image under it, but can be a supplament to it. IE: If a diffuse (colored texture) map had concrete, the height map could just be tiny divots and wear.

maybe it's just me, but that doesn't make sense regarding the previous sentence

Anything that juts out from the wall more than 6 inches uses a normal map (and will require you to make that map piecemeal in photoshop with that filter by hand, not by filtering the entire image, or by making a model for it)

postman please explain

Well, I meant that one must make the normal map by hand with that filter in mind. To make sure you don't get "fuzzy" or soft edges you have to make sure that your normal map image has very stark contrasts on the edges of its structures. You can add detail scratches, etc. to it by using a heightmap along with it later.

I personally don't use the method, I just thought I'd inform people about it. Also, if you invert the image at step 5, you geta better representation of the height of the normal. It all depends on whether or not it uses ATi's method or Nvidia's; ATi inverts the X/Y while Nvidia doesn't. This is what it looks like with the image inverted...

/pic-snip

/me Abandons tutorial.

The problem with converting images like the tutorial suggests is that EVERYTHING is essentially the same height and any detail is "fuzzy" or soft. It doesn't stand out very well and the whole thing looks like wrinkled cloth, not brick/concrete/iron. Sorry to stomp all over this, but there's a smart way and a sloppy way to use normal maps and unfortunately that filter is very very sloppy.

[dissonance]

holy shit

well played dissonnance

<3