Tutorials to be written - for newbie modders

[silverjoel]

For those who want to mess with rtlights in a text editor, here is the layout...

4092 -1884 24 200 1 1 1 6 "cubemaps/03" 1 0 0 -90 0.25 0 1 1 3


An ! infront of the line means the light will cast no shadows. Like this:
!4092 -1884 24 ................

Origin (x y z)
Size/radius
Color (rgb)
Light style
Cubemap (path)
Corona
Angle (x y z)
Corona size
Ambient
Diffuse
Specular
Mode (0-light doesn't show, 1-shows in normal, 2-shows in realtime, 3-shows in normal and realtime)

You can just create these in a text editor. It's a little faster for me. Make sure you hit enter after the last one you put in or it won't be read.

Edited: Good call on the colors ooppee.

[LambentHammerBurst]

Think the formatting broke your tutorial - maybe edit it and use text colors to represent which # matches the part in the line.

[silverjoel]

Is that more readable?

[LambentHammerBurst]

Yeah because he tried to split it with text
had the code above and then below he did:
|....1....|..2..|..3..| ect
and in this window it would look correct but once posted it didnt come out right - like the 5 was where 3 was. Just caused by the formatting of the page - so the color part fixes that as we just have to match the colors.

[dfsp_spirit]

Looks good with the colors. The other method only works with monospaced fonts (text between CODE tags should be rendered in such a font).

[Nergal]

It would GREATLY improve Reforged for one. Like the issue with Chthon and his huge memory requirement - the missing shader options from Q3 could drop that memory usage to half or less.

I was proficient with all the q3 shaders so I know what we miss. a shame indeed

[Nergal]

tutorials for newbies: if someone is interested I can explain how to model with the bsp editor to produce mdl files.
Obviously it's ALWAYS better to use a true modelling program, but maybe it's enough for quake1.

[inkub0]

thanks guys for sharing your knowledge!!! =)
this is the start for a better world

[xaGe]

Material creation for DP - DarkPlaces Wiki

[golden_boy]

Normal maps

Most existing normal map packs for texture sets (QRP for example) appear too extreme. The height difference is too great, giving the impression of craters, canyons, and surfaces partly eaten away by acid.

This probably results from running a batch operation across all textures (diffuse maps) of a pack. This way, a glass pane will have the same bumpiness as a withered away rock face. That's BAD.

The best way to create normal maps is by actually modelling the texture. However this is an absurd amount of work. Hence, people usually use programs that create normal maps from existing textures (diffuse maps).

The downside of this is that the normal map won't just "bump" the basic structure of the surface (gaps, rivets) but it will bump everything - all darker pixels, stains, blood, moss and dimples will appear way rough.

That's also bad because it will turn surfaces in a Quake map into fruitcake.

A lot of the materials in Quake actually shouldn't look very rough. A stained glass window is pretty flat, apart from the seams. It should not look like a conglomerate of bubbles.

A metal plate should look pretty smooth. Only the gaps between plates should be noticeably 3D. The surface itself should be much less "bumped" than the structural gaps, possible rivets etc.

A wood beam is in reality also pretty smooth. It has a few cracks, but every surface (which is the result of sawing) is overall flat. A saw produces a perfectly flat surface.

Brick walls again should have noticeable gaps between the individual stones, but the surfaces don't need to be very rough.

Keep in mind that even so called "high res textures" are low res compared to reality. At the resolution of Quake, you won't see small cracks and dimples in surfaces. A bump/normal map should only make the structural detail more apparent, ie gaps between plates/bricks and things like rivets. It should not transform the floor into the Rocky Mountains and the gaps between bricks into Grand Canyons, if you get what I mean.

In general, every attempt at normal mapping I have seen in Quake (either live, or in screen shots) has been totally over the top extreme.

It is easy to create normal maps from existing textures/diffuse maps - for example there are plugins for Gimp and Photoshop to do it. But every normal map needs to be done by hand, because every material is different. A glass pane is less bumpy than a rock wall. A wall relief is more bumpy than a sheet of metal.

The height / scale of normal maps is generally way too extreme in existing packs. Remember it is still a game. Remember too much of something is good for nothing.

As a level designer, I am way pissed off by normal maps that turn a beautiful texture into an assortment of asscracks. Don't do it folks. Try just adding a little shape to a texture. What counts is the diffuse map, the normals are just the icing on the cake.

And don't get me started on speculars. A lot of nice hi-res textures are turned into plastic with lip gloss on it by overdone speculars.

[silverjoel]

Does anyone know how to use the dpcamera shader?

I would assume there is a way to have it point somewhere. I can't figure it out though.

[LambentHammerBurst]

I don't find QRP's normal maps too intense unless you turn on relief mapping too, of course you could always just adjust their normal maps to be less intense (it's actually a 10 second job per texture to do).

I do agree normal maps should be modeled. Sadly with wall textures - could be VERY time consuming. I do find Crazybump + Edited Diffuse texture + Hand editing work very well. What I mean by edited diffuse texture is you adjust the texture's brightness and sometimes even retexture a complete area (like hazard stripes - I make the black bars yellow too as if you don't - the black becomes "cratered"). Obviously dont use the edited diffuse for the diffuse texture - just use it to aide in making the normal map.

However still - a modeled normal map IS the best and should be used on models if possible (like you made a much higher poly version of the model you made)

[Seven]

golden_boy

I must jump in here, cause its not correct.

My-Key, our best normal map maker, is FAR away from using a batch file to create normals !
He doesnt even create normals from diffuse maps.

My-Key needed very long time for his normal map pack, and this has a reason.

His excellent normals are undergoing a deeply manual process from diffuse to hight/bump to different normal programs and end up in fine tune and combination in Crazy-Bump.

The screenshots you mention, that show "unnatural" visual most probably are taken from guys,
who used this extremely important console variable wrong:

r_glsl_offsetmapping_scale (default is 0.04)


To summarize it:
QRP normals are handmade. VERY much time and effort was brought into them. They look amazing.
Everybody who tried to create normals, that can be compared, knows how good they are.
And personal likings should never lead to misjudgement.
If someone doesnt like the "height", it can be adjusted via above mentioned console variable.

I guess the great number of people using it speaks for itself.
We could not hoped for a better combination of talented people than Moon[Drunk] and My-Key.

Of course, personal likings are always different. This destiny is hitting everybody who creates something with his hands.
Doesnt matter if its a engine, a map, a texture, a model or a sound file.
As long as the majority of people likes it, you did a good job

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Seven

[golden_boy]

From a level designer's perspective, the detail added by normal maps is an extension of the level's geometry (primary concern of an LD), thus an LD might have different ideas about normals (and lighting) than a player.

I'm creating normal maps myself atm for the RMQ texture addon pack (so I'm not aimlessly whining here). It can not hurt to have two normal map packs to pick from, can it

I used FTE's gl_bump 1 in my tests. I notice the normals look slightly more acceptable in Darkplaces, however DP isn't my primary target engine. Here's an example of what I think is way too extreme (in DP without playing around with cvars):



Actual stained glass window: almost no bumpiness.



It's nifty that DP offers the option to reduce the bump's height, but a) it probably doesn't allow that per material, and b) if that's necessary I do have to question the original normal map's bumpiness.

As long as the majority of people likes it, you did a good job.

I hate to say this, and I do say this just to point out a flaw in the logic, not to hurt anyone's feelings: This would also mean that McDonald's does a good job at making food. Gourmet cooks would all be idiots.

Edit: This would be my take on the window - I'm not very good yet, of course. I chose to raise only the black seams (and only slightly). The highlights are actually drawn on the diffuse map.



Edit2: Tried doing some brick normal. This is extremely restrained though, might still need tweaking.



Edit3: A shot at the floor

[=peg=]

Me likes GB's version much better