Koniption's Attempt at HiPoly-LoPoly Normal Maps

[Koniption]

Hey guys,

This is kind of an oddball thread, but it should excite you.

I've been learning, with the help of Rickious, how to do those awesome high poly normal maps that sHadowgAme does in his "Hist Shrine" thread...or at least a close approximation to them, heh.

Rickious did a high poly and low poly version of a rock wall (he has programs that do good at high poly modeling). He then sent both those models to me, for me to try to figure out high poly normal mapping/texturing onto low poly models of same size and shape.

Here are screenshots in Nifskope of that rock wall, with texture and normal mapping using the high poly model:

http://img26.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshot2io.jpg

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Sorry but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, really. I understand that normal maps help to add a sense of depth to textures and that does seem to be working....

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Sorry but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, really. I understand that normal maps help to add a sense of depth to textures and that does seem to be working....

Yeah, that's what normal maps do. You're looking at a rock wall. The individual rectangle pieces are *supposed* to look "raised" up, sort of like shadowgames

......but after my opening post, I realized that shadowgame isn't using a perfectly flat wall to put his texture and normal maps on, but instead he's actually modeling those individual "bricks" to be raised up in the actual mesh itself...that's why his rock walls look more 3D and detailed.

So Rickious is gonna redo the low poly model to be slightly more detailed and have the bricks raised up, then I'll try again.

If you don't understand everything I just said - don't worry. Just judge things by the pictures as they are posted.

Koniption

[sHAdowgAme]

Hey I read the thread, and you seem to be doing the normal baking just fine.
My low poly models actually are just flat where the brick textures are, but I just play the diffuse texture in order to make it pop more and look more like the desired material. You should also do an ambient occlusion pass before you start painting the diffuse. It will create a nice gray scale guide for when you are painting the texture. (This takes a long time to render out, so as a substitute, you can just copy and paste from one of the RGB channels in the normal map. I usually use take the blue channel and up the contrast) Just be sure to set it to 'multiply' in your blending options (if you are using photoshop)


I attached the High Poly, wire frame, diffuse texture and ambient occlusion pass for you to look at. Hope this helps somewhat.

TLDR:Looks like you baked the normals correctly. Just Work some more on the diffuse (color) texture. Paint the mortar between the bricks a different color than the bricks themselves for starters.

[Koniption]

Originally posted by sHAdowgAme
Hey I read the thread, and you seem to be doing the normal baking just fine.
My low poly models actually are just flat where the brick textures are, but I just play the diffuse texture in order to make it pop more and look more like the desired material. You should also do an ambient occlusion pass before you start painting the diffuse. It will create a nice gray scale guide for when you are painting the texture. (This takes a long time to render out, so as a substitute, you can just copy and paste from one of the RGB channels in the normal map. I usually use take the blue channel and up the contrast) Just be sure to set it to 'multiply' in your blending options (if you are using photoshop)


I attached the High Poly, wire frame, diffuse texture and ambient occlusion pass for you to look at. Hope this helps somewhat.

TLDR:Looks like you baked the normals correctly. Just Work some more on the diffuse (color) texture. Paint the mortar between the bricks a different color than the bricks themselves for starters.

Ok, I see what you mean. I use GIMP for making textures, though. I'll have to see it has similar options for turning one of the RGB channels of the normal map into a makeshift ambient occlusion map.

What I did, was take a vanilla Oblivion rock texture (that did not have those shadowy black lines around each separate brick texture as seen in my pics), then I put that texture on the high poly model. In Max, I was able to make a diffuse map that sort of combined the lighting and shadows of the raised bricks that the highpoly model gave off, and had it overlaid onto the plain rock texture, so that it then looked like a brick wall.

I then used the highpoly to make the normal map, which I combined in GIMP, with the normal map of the vanilla rock texture. That way, not only did the "bricks" pop out more, but I also has a "rough and bumpy" texture to the wall overall, as well.

Thanks for the advice!

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

It's actually quite a simple texture, isn't it? But the whole process makes it work brilliantly, clearly.

[Ghogiel]

Originally posted by sHAdowgAme
(This takes a long time to render out, so as a substitute, you can just copy and paste from one of the RGB channels in the normal map. I usually use take the blue channel and up the contrast) Just be sure to set it to 'multiply' in your blending options (if you are using photoshop)

i've done that lol. i hate waiting for a ao map. I have done it in Xnormal, which is hella faster than mental ray. i'm probably going to use it more often if I'm not being lazy. Crazybump can sorta get a ao out of a normal map as well.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Bloody hell! Ghogiel! I haven't seen you in ages... =)