Just come across some more textures. Thing is there a new map type - occlusion. No idea what that is for. Also there's ones I already know - diffuse, normal and height. All maps are separate images and the occlusion one is tiny -3mb compared to 48mb for the diffuse and normal and 12mb for the height. Oh and these are 4k (ie 4096x4096 pixels in size) textures.
Sorry to be a pain but once I extract any embedded maps (height/glow) do I need to actually delete the alpha channel from the original image in order to get them to work properly with the shaders?
You don't have to delete the alpha channels, but for performance it is recommended that you do as to minimize video memory consumption. For the same reason, it's in general preferable to use the minimal amount of color channels necessary for the various maps, i.e. single channel / grayscale for specular, roughness, self illumination and height maps.
Regarding the occlusion maps, while not really intended for it, they can sometimes work as height maps (which both displaces and occludes), so could try to give that a go. Later, the plan is to allow seperate modifiers on how much height maps are used for displacement and occlusion, which would allow for more consistent use of occlusion maps, but not there yet.
Our main focus right now is working on the more fundamental revisions of the game engine, but don't let this keep you from posting feedback on this package. It will be read and used eventually.
@Soren I downloaded the update yesterday when I saw that you had been working on its project page on the vault. I read your update notice at the end of the description on that page. So how come this morning there is another update? Did you forget to actually post the files yesterday?
[update]
According to 7zip there are 2 problems with the "nwnee_shaders_2_3_0e_with_demo_0" archive. There is a header error and a data error with the file tcn_slum02D.TGA.
@TarotRedhand There was a minimal change that's so tiny that it doesn't really warrant a new version or even telling people to re-download (it's something that will only really matter at a later point).
[update]
According to 7zip there are 2 problems with the "nwnee_shaders_2_3_0e_with_demo_0" archive. There is a header error and a data error with the file tcn_slum02D.TGA.
TR
@TarotRedhand - thanks for the heads up, it should be fixed now
@Soren Apologies for this act of thread necromancy but I have a problem and this is the logical place to ask.
I have recently found time to return to trying this out. The experiments have been carried out on the retail branch. Both game and toolset (straight version not the beta version). I have been using some 100% public domain textures that I have come across. All the textures that I have tried are 1k square (1024x1024 pixels) TGAs. On the particular texture that gives the problem(s?) the textures bit/pixel sizes are as follows -
diffuse 24
normal 24
specular 8
height 8
glow 8
None of the files use RLE compression.
I am using the stable version of the shaders and have tried the materials file, tga images, model, etc both in a hak and in the override with the same result. I asked a friend to try these files on their machine which generated the same results. I have used an edited version of the example materials file that comes with the shaders.
The behaviour is as follows. If I just use the diffuse, normal and specular naps via renderhint within the model everything is fine. It is when I try to use a material file that things go wonky. In the toolset I can create a blueprint which shows the texture when I set appearance type. However as soon as I click on the the blueprint in order to paint an instance the toolset crashes with numerous errors. By using a model with the internal map references I can place the thing in the toolset. Then by changing it to one that references the material file I can get the game to load the area containing the placeable with the maps, without crashing. However, there is weird behaviour regarding the texture and the PC's position relative to the placeable, that I find hard to describe. It has to be seen to be understood.
Any thoughts? If you want, I can get the files to you via dropbox if you pm me.
Comments
[edit]
Just come across some more textures. Thing is there a new map type - occlusion. No idea what that is for. Also there's ones I already know - diffuse, normal and height. All maps are separate images and the occlusion one is tiny -3mb compared to 48mb for the diffuse and normal and 12mb for the height. Oh and these are 4k (ie 4096x4096 pixels in size) textures.
TR
TR
You don't have to delete the alpha channels, but for performance it is recommended that you do as to minimize video memory consumption. For the same reason, it's in general preferable to use the minimal amount of color channels necessary for the various maps, i.e. single channel / grayscale for specular, roughness, self illumination and height maps.
Regarding the occlusion maps, while not really intended for it, they can sometimes work as height maps (which both displaces and occludes), so could try to give that a go. Later, the plan is to allow seperate modifiers on how much height maps are used for displacement and occlusion, which would allow for more consistent use of occlusion maps, but not there yet.
TR
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwnee/other/nwnee-shader-prototypes-advanced-content
Our main focus right now is working on the more fundamental revisions of the game engine, but don't let this keep you from posting feedback on this package. It will be read and used eventually.
[update]
According to 7zip there are 2 problems with the "nwnee_shaders_2_3_0e_with_demo_0" archive. There is a header error and a data error with the file tcn_slum02D.TGA.
TR
@TarotRedhand - thanks for the heads up, it should be fixed now
I have recently found time to return to trying this out. The experiments have been carried out on the retail branch. Both game and toolset (straight version not the beta version). I have been using some 100% public domain textures that I have come across. All the textures that I have tried are 1k square (1024x1024 pixels) TGAs. On the particular texture that gives the problem(s?) the textures bit/pixel sizes are as follows -
diffuse 24
normal 24
specular 8
height 8
glow 8
None of the files use RLE compression.
I am using the stable version of the shaders and have tried the materials file, tga images, model, etc both in a hak and in the override with the same result. I asked a friend to try these files on their machine which generated the same results. I have used an edited version of the example materials file that comes with the shaders.
The behaviour is as follows. If I just use the diffuse, normal and specular naps via renderhint within the model everything is fine. It is when I try to use a material file that things go wonky. In the toolset I can create a blueprint which shows the texture when I set appearance type. However as soon as I click on the the blueprint in order to paint an instance the toolset crashes with numerous errors. By using a model with the internal map references I can place the thing in the toolset. Then by changing it to one that references the material file I can get the game to load the area containing the placeable with the maps, without crashing. However, there is weird behaviour regarding the texture and the PC's position relative to the placeable, that I find hard to describe. It has to be seen to be understood.
Any thoughts? If you want, I can get the files to you via dropbox if you pm me.
TR