The Next Stage In Game Texturing
DarkB5
Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11915Members
Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11915Members
<div class="IPBDescription">All About Normal Mapping</div> Well some of you may already know about Normal Mapping but alot of you probably do not and it is a awsome thing and it is the next stage in game texturing. it is used to bring things to life in games like Farcry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3 witch all use Normal Mapping to fake bump mapping in real time making things look awsome has some of you probably have seen.
The way normal mapping works is it uses per-pixel lighting to light the model the old way the engine did it was by a vertex to vertex bases with did not give you a good effect at all. So a normal map encodes the RBG data needed to define the normals of a model if you dont know what a normal is then read the 2nd tutorial below.
Anyway you can paint your own bump map and then convert it to a normal map to fake things on a model or you can make two models a low poly and a high poly mesh you take the high poly mesh and make a normal map out of it to define the pre-pixel lighting on the low poly model in other words you are making the low poly model look like the high poly model by making it have a real-time bump map on the model with is just awomse.
Anyway you probably sick of me going on and on about this lol here are some great tutorials to learn how to normal map later all and hope this helps
Read this one before doing any of the other tutorials this tutorial will help you to understand what a normal map is
<a href='http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tutorials_normal_maps1.html' target='_blank'>http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tut...rmal_maps1.html</a>
Another Tutorial on normal mapping
<a href='http://www.ionization.net/tutsnorm1.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.ionization.net/tutsnorm1.htm</a>
Forum post with information about normal mapping
<a href='http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=011260&p=' target='_blank'>http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimateb...f=1&t=011260&p=</a>
XSI normal mapping
<a href='http://be3d.republika.pl/howto_d3_normalmap.html' target='_blank'>http://be3d.republika.pl/howto_d3_normalmap.html</a>
Maya normal mapping tutorial
<a href='http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html' target='_blank'>http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html</a>
3ds Max normal mapping tutorial
<a href='http://www.pinwire.com/article82.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pinwire.com/article82.html</a>
Blender normal mapping
<a href='http://reblended.com/www/alien-xmp/Tutorials/NormalMap/NormalMap.html' target='_blank'>http://reblended.com/www/alien-xmp/Tutoria.../NormalMap.html</a>
Cinema 4D Normal mapping
<a href='http://members.shaw.ca/jimht03/normal.html' target='_blank'>http://members.shaw.ca/jimht03/normal.html</a>
Lightwave tutorial for normal mapping
<a href='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/normalmaps.html' target='_blank'>http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/normalmaps.html</a>
hope this list helps
some exsamples from the lightwave tutorial
<img src='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/images/normalmaps1.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<img src='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/images/normalmaps2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
The way normal mapping works is it uses per-pixel lighting to light the model the old way the engine did it was by a vertex to vertex bases with did not give you a good effect at all. So a normal map encodes the RBG data needed to define the normals of a model if you dont know what a normal is then read the 2nd tutorial below.
Anyway you can paint your own bump map and then convert it to a normal map to fake things on a model or you can make two models a low poly and a high poly mesh you take the high poly mesh and make a normal map out of it to define the pre-pixel lighting on the low poly model in other words you are making the low poly model look like the high poly model by making it have a real-time bump map on the model with is just awomse.
Anyway you probably sick of me going on and on about this lol here are some great tutorials to learn how to normal map later all and hope this helps
Read this one before doing any of the other tutorials this tutorial will help you to understand what a normal map is
<a href='http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tutorials_normal_maps1.html' target='_blank'>http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tut...rmal_maps1.html</a>
Another Tutorial on normal mapping
<a href='http://www.ionization.net/tutsnorm1.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.ionization.net/tutsnorm1.htm</a>
Forum post with information about normal mapping
<a href='http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=011260&p=' target='_blank'>http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimateb...f=1&t=011260&p=</a>
XSI normal mapping
<a href='http://be3d.republika.pl/howto_d3_normalmap.html' target='_blank'>http://be3d.republika.pl/howto_d3_normalmap.html</a>
Maya normal mapping tutorial
<a href='http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html' target='_blank'>http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html</a>
3ds Max normal mapping tutorial
<a href='http://www.pinwire.com/article82.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pinwire.com/article82.html</a>
Blender normal mapping
<a href='http://reblended.com/www/alien-xmp/Tutorials/NormalMap/NormalMap.html' target='_blank'>http://reblended.com/www/alien-xmp/Tutoria.../NormalMap.html</a>
Cinema 4D Normal mapping
<a href='http://members.shaw.ca/jimht03/normal.html' target='_blank'>http://members.shaw.ca/jimht03/normal.html</a>
Lightwave tutorial for normal mapping
<a href='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/normalmaps.html' target='_blank'>http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/normalmaps.html</a>
hope this list helps
some exsamples from the lightwave tutorial
<img src='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/images/normalmaps1.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<img src='http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/images/normalmaps2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Comments
does half life support this?
edit/ i just asked him on aim half life doesnt support it <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
heh normal mapping didnt exist when the quake2 engine was created.
heh normal mapping didnt exist when the quake2 engine was created. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well there is a modifed version of the quake engine that supports pre-lighting pixels it is called Tenebrae it is a open source project
and no half-life does not support normal mapping I only posted this hear because I post it in another forum to help someone and thought i'd share it here when I was at it
Well there is a modifed version of the quake engine that supports pre-lighting pixels it is called Tenebrae it is a open source project
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ya ive seen that graphics look like doom 3 <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
see what i mean?
<img src='http://tenebrae.sourceforge.net/shots8/quake00099.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Well there is a modifed version of the quake engine that supports pre-lighting pixels it is called Tenebrae it is a open source project
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ya ive seen that graphics look like doom 3
see what i mean?
[image removed] <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
yep... tenebrae even makes my computer cry <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> (and it's a Q1 mod, though there is not much left of the original code <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
oh and n1 DarB5 <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->