Compiling Normals in Vtex Created 18 years ago2006-02-14 10:48:10 UTC by Strider

Alright ive got a material named tilewall.tga and its normal map called tilewall_normal.tga when i run them both through Vtex then create a .vmt and put it in game, the material works there's just no bump mapping occuring, the texture appears flat.

The normal material has had the normal map plugin for Adobe used on it. When i run them through Vtex it creates the empty .txt file for each file. Is there something is should put in the tilewall_normal.txt before running it through Vtex again? Like "$normal" "1" or something, i cant remember.

Its occuring with all 20 custom materials im using and the strangest thing is ive made custom materials before, the same way (i think) and all previous bumpmaps have worked, i dont think this has anything to do with the HDR glitch i'm still getting as all other original materials and there bumpmaps work. Again, as always, any help you give is appreciated highly.

It could be just an update error because Valve once updated and suddenly my Vtex wouldn't work at all...So Read a guide and follow it otherwise wait.

Ive followed several guides, none of them are telling me what to write in the .txt file to tell vtex its properties, does anyone know what to put in there for normals?

normally, vtex puts "normal" 1 in for the *_normal texture.

maybe its glitch and not doing it now...? Ill try putting it in manually
"normal" 1 --> that it?

Nope didnt work, hmm... i think my SDK is generally just fucked, there better be an update soon, ill try refreshing the SDK or reinstalling it.

You have to specify the bump-map material for your texture in the VMT. VMT's can be opened with Notepad, so I suggest you do so. In it, add these lines (we shall say your texture is in a folder called "de_venice" ;D :

"LightmappedGeneric"
{

"$basetexture" "de_venice/tilewall
"$surfaceprop" "tile"
"$bumpmap" "de_venice/tilewall_normal"

}

The VMT file contains all the information that Source needs to apply various effects to it. What you've done in this example is told Source the texture will be lit by the map (the "LightmappedGeneric" part), that the base texture is "tilewall.vtf", it has a tile surface (meaning it will produce the correct decal and will sound like a tile when shot) and that the normal map is "tilewall_normal.vtf". As well as this, you can also add shader effects. Try adding this line after "$bumpmap" line:

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

This will tell Source that the texture will reflect the world, according to what the env_cubemap entity has found once your cubemaps have been built. I suggest you get a program called VTFEdit (Google for it, its one of Nem's tools). As well as that, I suggest that you check out the following:

The Snarkpit - "Learn to make Normal Maps"
Valve Developer Community - "Shader Types and Paramaters (this is more advanced)

G'luck.

Yep, done all that as i have done many times before, still bumpmaps are a no-show... looks crappy without bump maps.

Ok, did something (dont know what exactly!) And now bumpmaps appear, but as giant checkers. I know this happens as a result of specifying false bumpmaps, but looking in my materialsstridermaterials folder, they clearly exist, perhaps Vtex has compiled them wrong? It is proving to be a bastard of a thing.

The checkers means you haven't generated your cubemaps. Run "buildcubemaps" in the console.

EDIT: OK i have tried everything to get this working and by all my knowledge and the tips ive received they should be working - but they aren't. Here are some screens of whats happening to the bumpmaps:As far as i can tell, this is what happens when the normal maps are invalid or dont exist, but ive inspected all my textures, re-run them through vtex and its all proporly linked etc. and they DO exist.

Here is an example of one of my VMT's:

"lightmappedgeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "stridermapstrider_woodenwall1"
"$bumpmap" "stridermapstrider_woodenwall1_normal"
"$surfaceprop" "wood_plank"
}

All the file paths are correct, is anyone else getting this problem? I really need to fix it soon. I have run 'flush' ingame in an attempt to fix graphical glitches, aswell as validated all the steam files and updated them. Help is always appreciated, man love is optional.

hmmmm i recommend not using vtex.
use nem's VTFEdit
http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=38
i use nem everything i recommend you look around the site and get other stuff too

anyway vtfedit lets you create form images, and you select tons of flags and you can create your vmt files with options too etc.

I have VTFEdit, its what i used to inspect all the files, according to it all the files exist, ive opened every file and they are all correct... bloody steam errors.

hmmmmm bl bl bl

what? Anyway i have now reinstalled Steam from scratch, then recompiled the normals in Vtex and they still appear as the checkers, everything is in its right location and linked to the right files. I then tried compiling the textures through VTFEdit, no difference. Has ANYONE had this problem before, its really shitting me off now, because i cant make any custom materials with Bumpmaps!

Try changing the name. Ive noticed Steam is a little finicky with longer filenames.

Can I see what your normalmap image looks like?

might help more.

Get one showing soon...
EDIT: Hang on im gonna' try shortening all the names (i think this solved a similiar problem ages ago i totally forgot about). If this doesnt work ill post some pics.

Yeah, show your normal map image. It could be incorrect.

Here is one of the textures and its normal map, they are not to correct scale here as i quickly/inaccurately just cut and pasted them together, but you can see that they are as their supposed to be.