bukary on 7/5/2005 at 10:02

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I wanted to make some textures for T3Ed. Unfortunately, I've run into a very nasty problem with normal maps.

I save texture as "texture_D.dds" and normal map as "texture_N.dds". Then I create proper material in max and export it into T3Ed. Everything seems to work OK. Everything... except normal maps. :(

- Here are my texture DDS save settings:

Save Format: dds dxt1, rgb, no alpha, 2d texture
MIP Map Generation: no mip maps
Normal map settings: wrap, 4 sample, average rgb, image type: color map


- And here are normal map nVidia filter and DDS save settings:

nVidia filter:
Height Generation: wrap, 4 sample, scale: 5-15
Height Source: average rgb

DDS save settings:
Save Format: dds dxt1, rgb, no alpha, 2d texture
MIP Map Generation: no mip maps
Normal map settings: convert to tangent space, wrap, 4 sample, average rgb, image type: Tangent Space.

And the result:

http://img211.echo.cx/img211/5713/textura14bq.jpg

http://img168.echo.cx/img168/8599/textura21nt.jpg

As you can see, the problem is visible MOSTLY in dark areas. Do not pay attention to the texture quality (I used old texture from CL in my example, because the problem is very clear here). It's the same with better textures. I guess it has something to do with DDS and filter settings. If I use SCALE:1 in nVidia filter, everything looks OK in dark areas. But the texture is, obviously, too plain (there are almost no bumps).

Can anyone help me? What are your filter settings?

Ziemanskye on 7/5/2005 at 14:01

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just to check something - are you creating the Material as an Ion Shader in Max 5.1, as per the readme? And have you set any of the material properties? [Maybe the rug-like effect is some kind of Detail Texture at close range, because the material type thinks it's cloth or something]

toolman on 7/5/2005 at 22:02

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Weird. Can you dump the diffuse & normal somewhere so I can take a look?

Crispy on 8/5/2005 at 11:32

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If you email them to me (crispiness at fastmail.fm) I'll be happy to upload them for you.

bukary on 8/5/2005 at 17:30

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I save my texture as .DDS (with settings described in my first post in this thread), then I run Nvidia filter (with settings described in my first post). Is this the wrong way of creating normal maps? What should I do?

I am certain that the problem is with my abilities and Nvidia filter. If I create normal map with GIMP filter, it looks OK in T3Ed. Unfortunately, I cannot save my map as DTX1 in GIMP (this option is inactive in my GIMP; I don't know why).

I sent material library, texture and normal map (created with Nvidia filter) to Crispy.