ParallaxMap

[PN11A 2]

I looked through the wiki from bi for the super shader information. Parallax Normal maps are supposed to work in Arma3. Im trying to figure out how to get them in game do you add the parallax map to the alpha channel of the normal or is it a standalone map?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Normal map is a standalone texture. NOHQ file extension.

[PN11A 2]

_NO - normal map

_NS - normal map specular (normal map with alpha channel)

_NOF - normal map faded (fade away into distance similarly as detail map)

_NON - normal map noise (with noise for vegetation polyplanes)

_NOHQ - normal map high quality

_NOPX - normal map w paralax

_NOVHQ - two-part DXT5 compression

Here is what Im talking about, Can I export my displacement map from Zbrush and place it in an alpha channel of a normal map to get a Normal Map with parallax. The goal is to use both a normal and displacement map to retain the high poly model. Now what confuses me is just above that Normal map with specular just says normal with Alpha Channel. Some game engines require you to add the displacement map within the co or diffuse map. Im just trying to figure out how Arma does it.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Sorry, beyond me.

Have you looked at ArmA3's own resources, search for a NOPX file example (and RVMAT) ?

[da12thMonkey 1943]

AFAIK the _NOPX texture type only works on terrain shaders.

This was definitely the case when parallax maps were introduced in Arma 2 and I've seen no evidence that it's been extended to shaders for .p3d models in Arma 3.

Edited October 23, 2013 by da12thMonkey

[PuFu 4591]

What 12th monkey said: works only on terrain shaders. And is hardly a real displacement. Tbh i haven't seen any games using parallax disp on anything but environments, maybe because of how parallax actually works.

[PN11A 2]

Figured it would be better than nothing, so there is no maps that exist in the Arma engine to reproduce or come close to displacement maps?

[PuFu 4591]

bump(grey), height maps(grey), normals maps(RGB), displacement maps(grey) as well as vector displacement maps (RGBA) are all similar at their core

For what you want to achieve with displacement maps there needs to be direct support and dx11 RT tessellation. So no, there is no way to achieve that in RV engine, since it doesn't support either.

You best bet is still a high poly model for the heads, plus a proper SSS shader with a nice normals map baked. Zbrush does great baking by itself.

[PN11A 2]

Yes but not having an accurate poly limit to base it on makes modeling high poly tough. The head I created with the beard is roughly the same poly count as the example head. But its still almost unreadable as a silhouette. Also the example head didn't have eyeballs is this normal?

[PuFu 4591]

Yes but not having an accurate poly limit to base it on makes modeling high poly tough. The head I created with the beard is roughly the same poly count as the example head. But its still almost unreadable as a silhouette. Also the example head didn't have eyeballs is this normal?

I have said it numerous times: the limit for DX9 is 2^15 vertex normals. So it depends on the smoothing groups. In theory, for organic modeling, you only need one smoothing group, so 32k is your limit (at least until BI manages to get your fingers out and release updated tools). That said, for all i know, the said limit will stay the same, even if theoretically, DX11 limit is over 2^16 for a single mesh*

[PN11A 2]

I have said it numerous times: the limit for DX9 is 2^15 vertex normals. So it depends on the smoothing groups. In theory, for organic modeling, you only need one smoothing group, so 32k is your limit (at least until BI manages to get your fingers out and release updated tools). That said, for all i know, the said limit will stay the same, even if theoretically, DX11 limit is over 2^16 for a single mesh*

Thanks Pufu you helped me out a ton, you and Gnat make this place turn.