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Normal Maps. What am I doing wrong?

ForgottenMythForgottenMyth Member Posts: 60
in General Discussions NWN:EE
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?

Comments

  • NWN_TömlNWN_Töml Member Posts: 90
    I just bought the head start version just to see the SSAO and the new normal/ specular mapping function :wink: .
    So an example txi file would be great Team NWN EE !!
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
  • T0R0T0R0 Member Posts: 86
    edited February 2018
    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)
  • symmetricsymmetric Member Posts: 57
    edited February 2018
    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)
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    @symmetric Have you got any example pictures (with and without maps) that you'd care to share?

    TR
  • symmetricsymmetric Member Posts: 57
    edited February 2018
    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.
    Post edited by symmetric on
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    @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
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,725
  • NWN_TömlNWN_Töml Member Posts: 90
    edited February 2018
    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 :disappointed:

    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...
    Post edited by NWN_Töml on
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
  • InflatableFriendInflatableFriend Member Posts: 57
    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.

  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    Are these tangents that are mentioned the same as the specular map or something new?

    TR
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    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
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