Hi. I know many people have no clue how to do this sort of thing. I'm no expert but here are the basics for making and implementing a normal map in FPSC.

There are probably many other things you could do to improve it's look, but here I just show you the basics of making a normal map.



I also show how to add in the normal map plugin on Gimp, as it is required for this to work. Hopefully this will help any of you hoping to get into the media side of FPSC. Obviously you will need to download and install Gimp and the plugin if you do not already have it.

Many thanks DVader .



Dave

That was a good video, good to adjust with. there is a free program that generates both at once you may want to look at it.

http://ssbump-generator.yolasite.com/ attached is a screen shot

Thanks Granada and The Rev. I have been playing about for quite a while to learn how to get this working, so thought I would share my new found knowledge here and spare others the job of searching around for the non specific tutorials out there.

I'm fairly surprised not many have viewed it yet, perhaps it is something most don't care to try as it sounds complicated!



Hopefully over time people will find it useful though!



I'll take a look at that bump generator. I did try one before going the Gimp route but it seemed a little awkward, and not great for adjusting current maps, as opposed to making new ones.

What I really need though is a masterclass in unwrapping, as my attempts are always rather rubbish I spent 6 or more hours yesterday making a bridge and uv mapping it. After much switching between gimp, fpsc and blender I ended up with a solid looking, but fairly naff textured bridge. Ah well lol.

There are different ways to do the uv's one is multi textures one texture for each part if they fix it in reload you can then do it that way. I am not the best when it come to drawing so I use pictures for my textures. But first thing I do is make a uv map bitmap from my editor mostly use planer or box uv some time both then save it out then open my texture editor and fill in the areas in the bitmap then save it as a dds. this one works for me. Another way is make up you texture and in your editor then move them around to where they should go. Like I say there are many ways, here is a web site that has a free uv mapper and a pdf that may help Hope it helps

http://www.uvmapper.com/index.html

I used to use Lithunwrap, ages ago, but have since adopted using Blenders Unwrap options. I'll check out the website, see if it looks a better option. Here is the UV map I made for my bridge for example. The road and under side are ok, but the bridge sides are too small to get any sort of good detail in. My model is probably not great either, lol. How people Unwrap complicated models I have no clue, well apart from using seams, but I never find them that useful!

tried blender once seemed a little slow for me





Very slowly My friend does graphics for a game company mostly freelance he does everything in max separates the pollys and uses different textures when reload fixes that it will be a lot easier whats wrong with yours? shade hard to add textures. the one I sent you yesterday was a box uv of the house. I used uvmapper and used the color tile it broke it down to texture groups 2048 it came out to 13 512 sq's took my textures

as you see in zip just copied and past them in the 2948 blank worked out well a couple I had to use box uv as it messed with the texture on the model took like 30 min I forgot that program did the tile thing.

Ah, it just looks rubbish, and reminds me of ps1 days, great at the time, Jaw dropping at the time, but dated as hell now. you lost me a bit the last bit, 13 512 sq's?

The 2048 is blank dds it will fit 16 512X512 textures in it so in that one with the house it was 13 512 texture maps. what was dated as hell ? The model and textures were off of turbosquib had different textures. So redid the uv so reload run it, no normal maps. Or was it the uvmapper?

My texture was dated as hell lol. The bridge looked like it was out of Tombraider on the ps1. Hold on, I'll grab a screenie

Probably due to the bridge UV parts being so skinny, probably need to fatten em up a bit and maybe rearrange it a little, rotate em and stuff, lots of work as you know. Not sure if I like it enough to bother I may start over and try not to be so stingy on polys.

For a minute there I thought You were saying I was dated HAHA the texture looks to big for the rails. The rails could be a little wider but I think the texture would make the difference Still looks good thought good idea for a bridge.

No, your stuff looks good. Any negative comments were aimed at my work not yours.

The bridge here was going to be a quick test, the model took maybe 20 mins at most. However I ended up spending hours on getting the texture to work. Why is it most programs when making UV layouts always make them just slightly too small so they leave glaring gaps on the edge. It was such a tightly packed map I had little room for adjustment in places. I should have just gone back to the model and changed it a bit, rather than constantly adjust the UV map and keep checking in FPSC for gaps.

Still we live and learn, sometimes forgetting again, and relearning later on lol! I should have just left enough gaps and then expanded the selections a couple of pixels!

I know something simple winds up taking days and at the end its not what you thought it be. No it was a joke about me not the model being dated an old gezzer. I was thinking why you did not get the look see at your normal maps I think it has to go in the main forums some where as it was good for people to get a better understanding of this. It took me forever to figure it out how they did 3 textures like they do. Maybe this beta will fix the multi textures this was out of the theater pack made it in fpsc then took the dbo and changed it to an x file

all the models became one and the textures were all the different ones, can you thing of the work it be to vu it all of them I shiver at the thought

I posted this in the main forums, but as it was a media thing, it got moved here. To be honest I didn't even think about it, I'm so used to posting on the main thread.

I agree you can take forever on something and in the end it is nothing like you first imagined..

Hi DVader,



COOL!!

Thanks Miki!