How to crate and edit the nohq texture

[deltaGhost 10]

Yeah i mean that texture that defines a kind of irregularitis, the blue texturefrom material, that one that its on the UV editor when you press " material's texture i dont know what is the correct word sorry.

On my units i used a texture wich is not fiting with the nohq texture or " materials texture " i want to make my own nohq texture " or materials texture " but i dont know which program should i use.

i tried it on photoshop cs5, then i saved it as soldier_nohq again and i placed it on data file , it failed when i packed everything and i got the units working on arma 2 , there was like kind of strange ligth effect ," it brigthed a lot " so strange.

A- how do i modify them

B- how do i crate them

C- what program should i use

D- is there any tutorial

E- how to just , disable the nohq or " materials texture " ?

[max power 21]

Good questions :)

Normal maps are a big topic and I hope I can give you a good introduction to the basics.

I did a tutorial on cavity maps which can be derived from normal maps. It has a short explanation of normal maps. That section is linked in the table of contents.

Normal maps are textures that tell the renderer about the shape of surface detail that is not included in the polygonal information. They are the next step in the evolution of the bump map

B. You can create a normal map by a dedicated program that takes a high poly mesh, extracts the 'normal' (read: surface detail) information, and applies it to the low one in the form of an RGB image.

*OR*

You can create a bump map and use a program to convert the bump map to a normal map.

*OR*

Some programs can take the lighting information in a single photograph and guestimate the vector of the lighting in the image, and then from that try to figure out what the surface portrayed in the photo is shaped like in 3d. Then, it makes a normal map based on that. Another similar technique is to have photographs with the light on several different known angles, so the computer doesn't have to guess where the light is coming from.

A. Modifying them is a bit tricky because there is a lot going on in them. Usually the simplest way is to cut out pieces out of one normal map and and add them to another using image editing software.

C. Photoshop, if you have the budget, or the GIMP if you want a capable, free package to edit them. To create them using 3d polygon sources, most professional packages (3dsmax, Maya, XSI) come with some kind of render-to-texture, map transferring method. I think that Blender, which is free and also good, has that capability as well. xNormal is also capable of transferring normals from one mesh to another.

To create normal maps from texture sources, you can use CrazyBump, xNormal, the Nvidia Photoshop plug-in, the xNormal photoshop plug-in... and I think ati has something like that aswell for Photoshop.

D. There are tuts all over the place. They are fairly software specific, though, so you should decide on what software you want, then google for tuts. :)

E. To not use a normal map when an rvmat requires one, set the shader to use a procedural texture in the image field using the rvmat editor. Set it to nohq and use the default. That will make a procedural nohq map that has neutral pixel with no bumpiness in like two or three mouse clicks.

[deltaGhost 10]

Lots of thx max power :bounce3:

Hands to work modifying my Units " Us_soldier_nohq.paa " So the amrs and legs doesent look like crap lol

Nice job with the tutorial. :)

i think that i will use blender , ive heard good opinions on this forums from gnat and those experts xD

Modify in this game its hard , " and thats why i like it " lol not everyone can do what i can :)

Edited August 18, 2010 by deltaGhost

[PuFu 4600]

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=show&redirect=Normal+Map

[deltaGhost 10]

ok thx to you to pufu thats useful , lets see if i get a good RVMATs skill

[deltaGhost 10]

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Edited August 20, 2010 by deltaGhost