?Normal Maps Sub Skins?

[rcjonessnp175]

Just wondering if we can get good normal maps ie the ones on the ships, at certain angles and light the normal maps r quite detailed and has a really cool textured look to them. I think everybodys seen this, well my question is why dont the subs have this, especially since the Release of ROW most time now is spend ooogling at the beauty of this game. Thiers got to be a way to make the subs have the awesome normal maps, what i mean by that is the super textured looks like alot of the newer first person shooters that have depth and looks like the surface is not flat but hahaha Textured.
SOrry if this has been asked before, just something that i think this awesome mod community could handle, oh and Foofighters ur skins rock, but if we had the normal maps the ships did, that be even awesomer hahaha.

Jonesy yup another op cancelled here in Iraqistan, hearts and minds stuff is gay.

[FooFighters]

Originally Posted by rcjonessnp175

Just wondering if we can get good normal maps ie the ones on the ships, at certain angles and light the normal maps r quite detailed and has a really cool textured look to them. I think everybodys seen this, well my question is why dont the subs have this, especially since the Release of ROW most time now is spend ooogling at the beauty of this game. Thiers got to be a way to make the subs have the awesome normal maps, what i mean by that is the super textured looks like alot of the newer first person shooters that have depth and looks like the surface is not flat but hahaha Textured.
SOrry if this has been asked before, just something that i think this awesome mod community could handle, oh and Foofighters ur skins rock, but if we had the normal maps the ships did, that be even awesomer hahaha.

Jonesy yup another op cancelled here in Iraqistan, hearts and minds stuff is gay.

It's still pretty early in the morning.. but I do not no what you mean with this ?

[rcjonessnp175]

k well in the options menu, graphics, thiers an option for ship normal maps, but not for the subs. if u look at a ship at sunrise or at dawn, ull see what im talking about. I dont have the technical terms in my vocab, but basicly, the sun light hits the hull of the ships and u can see the normal maps. I guess its hard to explain, but the skin is rough and shiny depending on the camera angle. Next time im in game ill try and take a screenie.


Jonesy

[rodan54]

I believe rcjonessnp175 is refering to the N01.dds texture files, which the subs are indeed lacking. And I fully agree, they could definetely serve to up the level of sub detailing to something more along the lines of the following.

[kapitan_zur_see]

Originally Posted by rcjonessnp175

Just wondering if we can get good normal maps ie the ones on the ships,

I already thought about that and did some research.
On the first hand, i believe normal maps were not added because there's not much detail you could need to add using normal maps on the subs. Try to think about what detail you would add if you were to make such a texture, you'll see that for a sub, there's not much need of it (too much flat, no doors, no small details like windows, ropes, buoys etc.) or such details being already 3d modelled.

However i started to get interesting because i thought there could be minor improvements, such as every limber holes outline.

The problem is, we couldn't at present fully export 3d model inside, say, 3dsmax and import them back with new textures UVW coordinate and reference which should pretty much be the way. Pack3d did that for SH3 and stills work when exporting certain models from SH4 (i use it for sub hull for working on my mod bubbles), but it don't know how to handle certain features that are SH4 only and thus textures don't work when you import a model back.

I believe there might be a way to manually add a texture node to a model using skwas S3D + hex editing. UVW coordinates might be complicated to implement though
Not to mention, S3D seems to have problems reading textures nodes right in the dat files (no coordinates, no reference for the .dds files etc.)

[FooFighters]

Originally Posted by kapitan_zur_see

I already thought about that and did some research.
On the first hand, i believe normal maps were not added because there's not much detail you could need to add using normal maps on the subs. Try to think about what detail you would add if you were to make such a texture, you'll see that for a sub, there's not much need of it (too much flat, no doors, no small details like windows, ropes, buoys etc.) or such details being already 3d modelled.

However i started to get interesting because i thought there could be minor improvements, such as every limber holes outline.

The problem is, we couldn't at present fully export 3d model inside, say, 3dsmax and import them back with new textures UVW coordinate and reference which should pretty much be the way. Pack3d did that for SH3 and stills work when exporting certain models from SH4 (i use it for sub hull for working on my mod bubbles), but it don't know how to handle certain features that are SH4 only and thus textures don't work when you import a model back.

I believe there might be a way to manually add a texture node to a model using skwas S3D + hex editing. UVW coordinates might be complicated to implement though
Not to mention, S3D seems to have problems reading textures nodes right in the dat files (no coordinates, no reference for the .dds files etc.)

If something like this will happen, we should also try to make 2 textures.
One for left and one for right side of the sub.

Then we can add numbers etc..

[l3th4l]

did anybody try just adding a ...N01... texture to the folder? it's just a thought, but maybe there already is a normal map referenced inside the model but not found..

i'd try creating a grayscale heightmap on top of the regular texture (for alignment); then running the normalmap filter over it, flatten and save under the same name except replacing the "T" with an "N"...

if anybody already tried this then please forget i said anything

[kapitan_zur_see]

Originally Posted by l3th4l

did anybody try just adding a ...N01... texture to the folder? it's just a thought, but maybe there already is a normal map referenced inside the model but not found..

No, i already tried that doesn't work. And using S3D, i can't find where's the texture reference. I believe it doesn't quite read textures right in the dat files

[l3th4l]

look in "NSS_Porpoise.upc". you'll find the "NormalmapTextureName" parameter is NULL. Set it to "data/Submarine/NSS_Porpoise/NSS_Pclass_N01.tga" and the normalmaps appear if you've created them correctly and put them in the right place.

the are a few parts that are not covered by that normal map, but i imagine there is a place somewhere else where you can activate those.

[skwasjer]

Originally Posted by kapitan_zur_see

No, i already tried that doesn't work. And using S3D, i can't find where's the texture reference. I believe it doesn't quite read textures right in the dat files

S3D does read them right. Don't know why you assume this. Because you don't see a hardcoded path or embedded texture does not mean S3D is doing wrong. Besides, you can always ask in my S3D thread...

In SH4 pretty much all textures are external and their file/path is determined based on the label of the material (for ships etc. remove cfg#TXR_ and you've got the filename...). Second, the game uses a file search method where it first searches the directory where the .dat is located, then it will search the textures folder.

[edit] The sub textures are only for the hulls. To have a complete look, you'll also have to add normal maps for conning towers and other objects... You'll also want to add a height map (alpha channel Oxx texture)...