Normal Maps. What am I doing wrong?

ForgottenMyth

So I have the new patch and am trying to get a normal map I created the other day for the snow tileset but I'm struggling to get it to work. I edited 'tts01_grass02.txi' to use the custom shader, put my normal map for tts01_grass02 in the ovr folder, but what else do I need to do? how do I specify the additional texture in the txi? is there a special way to name the normal and specular maps?

NWN_Töml

I just bought the head start version just to see the SSAO and the new normal/ specular mapping function .
So an example txi file would be great Team NWN EE !!

TarotRedhand

Wait until they give the promised instructions on how to use them as mentioned on the stream when I asked about using them. BTW, why are you using a txi file? My understanding from how they work in NwN2 is that it's all about the file name. But without instructions we won't know for sure.

TR

InflatableFriend

niv said this on Discord yesterday, haven't tested it yet tho.

add the following lines to your .mdl (or .txi):

renderhint NormalAndSpecMapped
texture0 filenameoftex (alias = bitmap)
texture1 filenameofnormal
texture2 filenameofspecular

TarotRedhand

While those are great hints, they don't say exactly where in the model they are supposed to go. There is also the little matter of what settings to use to produce working map files. I've got the InsaneBump gimp plugin and the AwsomeBump standalone program in anticipation of this feature. But until I know the necessary settings I can't really make use of them. I have a suspicion about the location to put those lines you mention but until I know for sure I am not going to mess my (admittedly simple) models up. However if you do crack it before we have the official instructions, I and probably many others would be interested to know.

TR

T0R0

I think it will go in the node of the mesh you are trying to map. Is someone going to add this feature to max scripts or maybe we can get #OldMansBeard to add to CM3 maybe ?
(thxs to #Symphony for hints)

symmetric

The entry goes below each node, where the bitmap entry is. They can both be present, I don't know which takes precedence though.

I got it working in MDL files, but I haven't tested TXIs yet. Neverblender supports it and I'll release an update within the next days once I finished testing (still need to do some tests for animeshes)

TarotRedhand

@symmetric Have you got any example pictures (with and without maps) that you'd care to share?

TR

symmetric

Right now there is not much to look at. I made a simple plane with a pure red texture, grabbed a random normal map and made a specular map with a black side and a white side. I can send them to you if you want.

TarotRedhand

That's OK. I was just genuinely curious. I've been too busy writing a manual for something that is actually a month or to away from release to do more than figure what that gimp plug-in I mentioned earlier, actually does. Thanks for the offer though. BTW you might find kamal's texture project for NwN2 of interest although I don't as yet know how relevant they will be for NwN.

TR

TarotRedhand

OK, I've taken the plunge and it looks like -





You can have a look and if you want download this from the vault here. First experiment with mixed results. All explained on the project page.

TR

Symphony

TarotRedhand said:

@symmetric Have you got any example pictures (with and without maps) that you'd care to share?

TR

Something I did a few hours ago.




Details as follows:
Floor:

• Sand replaced with high resolution texture
  
• Sand shaped for normal map generation in CrazyBump
  
• Normal map used to remove some highlights and shadows from base texture
  
• Specular map generated from CrazyBump
  
• Textures Exported to GIMP
  
• Resolution doubled (CrazyBump's size recognition detail mixer is based on pixel size)
  
• HSV noise added to normal map and base texture (fine sandgrain detail)
  

Merchant's Shingle

• Model imported into Blender via Neverblender
  
• All faces/edges marked as "smooth" (Same smoothgroup. Personally I feel even with smoothing 2 flat surfaces at 90° still create an edge, but the separate smooth groups is too sharp for me)
  
• Imported original texture into CrazyBump (DDS to TGA from 1.69 assets on the neverwintervault.org)
  
• Generated normal map and adjusted to taste (create height for metal ridge, but not too much height for gold sheen on texture)
  
• Normal map used to remove some highlights and shadows from base texture
  
• Textures Exported to GIMP
  
• Gold "enhanced" with more "fiery" gold I used for a w_metal_tex replacement last summer
  
• Gold "erased" partially, to allow environment map to show through texture
  
• Specular map adjusted to show less diffusion on wood and stone (black paintbrush, rectangle, with low opacity
  

Looks pretty good. The SSAO helps a bit, as do all of the tile lights around the area.
The area is the character creation area from the Arelith PW server.

TarotRedhand

@Symphony those look great and thanks for sharing the process that you went through to make them. FWIW I just processed mine using the InsaneBump gimp plugin (good but produces too many maps - have to delete 7 for every image) on the default settings and edited my models in notepad++ (gonna have to write a small program to automate the process as I've got around 145 models to do for my next experiment...).

TR

JuliusBorisov

https://twitter.com/BeamdogInc/status/961302891318267904

NWN_Töml

Looking pretty awesome. But for me they dont work. I add all the commands in 3ds max - object property - user defined properties :

renderhint=NormalAndSpecMapped
texture0=mos01floor01 (alias = bitmap)
texture1=mos01floor01_n
texture2=mos01floor01_s
node_type = trimesh

and nothing happens

I just wanted to add some normal/ specular map to a forest floor texture...

Well, i even replaced the "texture1=mosfloor_n" with the one provided from the celticknots from Tarot and nothing happens.

------------------

Ok i got it working. It´s a strange and process nothing for the impacient . The exporter scripts from NW Max deletes them for me and i have to add every single entry with notepad. That means when your model has 10 separate meshes with the same texture you have to add 10 times the renderhint option...

TarotRedhand

What I found strange is that we have to edit the models at all. Now I might be wrong about this but don't other games just look for textures with names that are the same as that texture except that they have _n appended for the normal map and _s for the specular map?

I am guessing that there may be further additions to the models covered in future patches and this one way of getting us used to it. On the other hand it may just be done for speed (i.e. no search necessary). Who knows.

TR

TarotRedhand

Just heard from @niv. The

(alias = bitmap)

is not needed. It was just a way of explaining about this so don't include it.

Also, the line in @NWN_Töml post above -

node_type = trimesh

is just a part of the model and not an extra line to insert into it.

TR

InflatableFriend

Once it works properly via .txi then there shouldn't be any need to edit the models anymore. Hopefully.

Having the normal maps as an opt-in feature for textures makes sense given that it's such a new feature and the available normal mapped parts are so few.

TarotRedhand

Are these tangents that are mentioned the same as the specular map or something new?

TR

TarotRedhand

Warning - not yet tried. Experiment at your own risk. You have been warned.

As I've got literally hundreds of textures to try this on I started looking for a way to batch process the images. I may have found one but I haven't tried it yet. As well as the insanebump plug-in for gimp you need another. Bimp - Batch Image Manipulation Plugin. Having installed it in my win10 version of gimp, it looks like it just might work when I can get around to it.

TR