custom bumpmap photoshop question Created 18 years ago2006-05-30 17:59:45 UTC by Xyos212

Im using Photoshop NVIDIA normal map filter tool for bumpmapping. It used to show the bumpmap in a blue tint in the previw. Now its all blue with no bumpmap preview. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Can you post a screenshot?

http://img319.imageshack.us/img319/163/messup8tv.jpg

That blue box on top should be outlining the bumps with a dark blue. Its not. It used to, but for some reason it wont anymore.

BTW this is an illegal PS, but shouldnt matter since it was working.....

Not changed anything? Driver updates, etc.?

you have a 0 in the "Scale" box.
I typed it into mine and it became flat, like in your screenshot.
Change the number to something like 20

Ahh, Thank you Kasperg! I cant believe I overlooked that. Im embarassed.

Another question about reflection masking:

Im having trouble understanding these directions:

Masking the reflection

Some materials will have varying amounts of shininess. For example, a metal texture would not be very shiny wherever it's rusty. A mask will allow you to determine the reflectivity of each pixel of your texture.

1. Start by making the mask in grayscale at the same resolution as your original texture. The brightness of the mask will be multiplied by the opacity of the envmap, on top of the envmaptint. In other words, black means no reflection and white means full reflection. The rest of the steps depend on whether your material has a normal map:

2a. Masking a material with a normal map
Save the mask into the alpha channel of your normal map. Now add this line to your VMF:

"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1

2b. Masking a material without a normal map
Save the mask as a new TGA file (no alpha channel) with _mask at the end of the name. Convert it to a VTF and put it in the same directory as your texture. Add this line to your VMF:

"$envmapmask" "texture name"

and fill in the path and name of your mask.

Here's an example VMT for a material with a normal map. Since we already have a normal map, we'd just embed the mask into the alpha channel of the normal map, as described in step 2a.

"LightmappedGeneric"
{

"$basetexture" "walls/brickwall"
"$surfaceprop" "brick"
"$bumpmap" " walls/brickwall_normal"
"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$envmaptint" "[.5 .5 .5]"
"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1

Its Step 2 I dont understand. Saving in the alpha channel? Does that mean save the texture in 32 bit format for the alpha and simply add the "$envmapmask" "texture name"? If I have a bumpmap already, Do I make another grayscale with the mask and somehow save it to the alpha channel? How does it work?

Thanks in advance

Trying to draw attention to this thread! Can someone answer my previous post if possible>??

I would answer but I don't know how it works. I read a couple of tutorials on the subject but never managed to get it right.

What I understand from those steps, is that the mask for a bumpmapped texture goes inside the same tga file, but you need to save it as a separate file if there is no bumpmap.

Normal texture + (normal+reflection mask)
or
Normal texture + reflection mask

I don't know how to "save" things into the alpha channel. That might be where you are getting lost too

Ya, I know how to with no bumpmap, its easy. The same texture with _mask at the end similar to a bumpmap, but used for lighting. The saving to the alpha I dont understand. Argh. MAybe I should look up just saving to alpha channel in general not related to source, and then experiment a bit.

When I figure it out I will post the answer. Thanks for the help BTW

Ok I figured it out.

In photoshop, open up the _normal tga file of your texture. Then open up the greyscale version used to outline where the reflection is. Now ctrl A (select all) the gray scale, go to "select" then save selected as, then save it in the _normal's alpha channel. Then compile with vtex, and fill in the VMT files attributes. BAM thats a spicy meat ball!!!!!