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Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460767]

Sun, 11 December 2011 18:04

Generalcamo
Messages: 522
Registered: October 2010

Karma: 0

Colonel

Does 4.0 support normal maps? If not, will it be added in later?

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460768 is a reply to message #460767]

Sun, 11 December 2011 18:20

Caveman
Messages: 2476
Registered: July 2005
Location: Wales, UK

Karma: 0

General (2 Stars)

What do you mean exactly.. Support what for normal maps?

CarrierII wrote

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Please don't make me type something like that again, not using puntuation is annoying.

http://r9.fodey.com/2158/bc450f3ca15045e9bdd7651fa49f3a0a.0.gif

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460777 is a reply to message #460767]

Sun, 11 December 2011 23:44

iRANian
Messages: 4299
Registered: April 2011

Karma: 0

General (4 Stars)

He's referring to normal mapping, a technique in 3D graphics to fake detail into a model by faking the lighting of bumps and dents.

Long time and well respected Renegade community member, programmer, modder and tester.

Scripts 4.0 private beta tester since May 2011.

My Renegade server plugins releases

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460781 is a reply to message #460767]

Mon, 12 December 2011 02:11

jonwil
Messages: 3555
Registered: February 2003

Karma: 0

General (3 Stars)

Last I heard from Saberhawk, no, the normal map shader is not working.

Jonathan Wilson aka Jonwil
Creator and Lead Coder of the Custom scripts.dll
Renegade Engine Guru
Creator and Lead Coder of TT.DLL
Official member of Tiberian Technologies

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460790 is a reply to message #460767]

Mon, 12 December 2011 13:11

Aircraftkiller
Messages: 8213
Registered: February 2003

Karma: 0

General (5 Stars)

It's pretty useless anyhow without specular lighting to show off the details. Otherwise it's flat looking and doesn't really look quite right.

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460799 is a reply to message #460767]

Mon, 12 December 2011 17:02

Generalcamo
Messages: 522
Registered: October 2010

Karma: 0

Colonel

There was a shader that enabled specular lighting back in 3.4.4. It might still work.

EDIT: Here we go, it was in this ZIP, it is the FX file:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/5/2307214/NormalMappedStuff2.2.rar

[Updated on: Mon, 12 December 2011 17:03]

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460801 is a reply to message #460790]

Mon, 12 December 2011 17:11

Jerad2142
Messages: 3805
Registered: July 2006
Location: USA

Karma: 6

General (3 Stars)

Actually specular isn't that useful, it only really applies to shiny or smooth objects.
As long as you aren't being silly with lights (like matching their diffuse output with their ambient, which as a rule of thumb should be lower otherwise objects get shadowed wrong (unless indoors, special case for that obviously). As long as that condition is true normal maps should work perfectly fine, as they're just a more advanced form of bump maps.

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460859 is a reply to message #460801]

Wed, 14 December 2011 03:21

sla.ro(master)
Messages: 610
Registered: September 2010
Location: Romania

Karma: 0

Colonel

Normal maps is good for having a more detailed game, this shader can make the difference between a old and new game. having this technology will give to ren a more cool look, more shaders can make game nicer (slower performance) but too many can make game unstable.

example of normal maps

Creator of Mutant Co-Op
Developer of LuaTT

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460884 is a reply to message #460767]

Thu, 15 December 2011 01:30

Aircraftkiller
Messages: 8213
Registered: February 2003

Karma: 0

General (5 Stars)

Except as I said; without specularity it's nearly useless. It's not worth the performance drop. Furthermore, you'd need to find someone who actually knows how to make good normal maps. You're not going to get good ones simply by running the Renegade textures through the Nvidia Photoshop filter. The best normal maps come from digital sculpting or good photo-manipulation, not from 1998-2002 textures which have lighting pre-baked into them - which fucks over proper normals.

Renegade's textures are all pre-built lighting anyhow, so they'd look like ass with normal maps. Proper usage of normal maps:

Diffuse texture lacks lighting
Specular lighting highlights the surface of the model via a custom shader
Normal maps define the surface detail

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Re: Normal maps and 4.0 [message #460980 is a reply to message #460767]

Sun, 18 December 2011 07:58

Generalcamo
Messages: 522
Registered: October 2010

Karma: 0

Colonel

OK, but we could still use them. Your mammoth tank for example did not have prebaked lighting. And I think on vehicles specularity is enabled. If not, then maybe saberhawk could work them out.

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