[Enioch]

Yes, it seems it can. But I still got problems

Take a look at this. I've loaded my meshes (both objs and I've tried BOTH the native 3ds max exporter AND the gw:obj one. There's no difference in the result). I've given it a +/-1 ray distance, averaged the normals (for some reason I can't 'harden' them, or xNormal crashes during rendering), tried it both with and without a cage. Tried increasing/decreasing values in ray distance. I still get this nasty 'curve' thing in my normal map.

And the final hull looks like this; light comes from above and left. I hate it.

Still, it's better than anything I've achieved with 3ds max or MeLODy. I like xNormal; I find it more intuitive and effective. But, somehow I can't get rid of THE CURVE OF DOOM! (TM)

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Enioch]

SUCCESS! 

Height Map + NVIDIA Photoshop Plugin =Total WIN!   

Who needs crappy mesh projection?

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Colonol Dekker]

Congrats

Saved yourself some aggro there.

[Water]

Just out of curiosity, how many polys in the low poly object?

[Galemp]

Looks like about a hundred.

[Enioch]

Looks like about a hundred.

Why, thank you very much! 

Appearances can be deceiving: 550 tris.

And I've added normals not only to the panels, but to the rust/bumps as well. Tell me what you think.

I don't like the rear. If you concur, I think I'll do the airlock (the bit in the middle) with polies. I want it to stand out more. And I'll fix the diffuse texture, so that the greebles aren't all the same dull grey

I'll probably start on the wheel today.

BTW, I know it's to soon, but I like to plan ahead; Snail, you mentioned animated docking rings etc. I'm pretty sure I can do rotating subsystems (eg the wheel), but how can I do something that 'swings'? You know, like docking clamps, or similar?

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Enioch]

Height maps rule, but projection rules more!

Seriously, I want to crack my head against a wall. All I had to do, was work with no 'cage', and Max creates Normal Textures like a charm! They're 'deeper' and more accurate than anything I could have done with height maps.

Here is the new hull and Centrifuge wheel. I might tone down a bit on the 'rust' normals on the wheel.

Total faces (including the engines, which are hidden)= 1.2k

And I love it!

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Titan]

no offense, but if you hand the maps over to a senior texturer, THEN it will look FS-ish. This is good, but the textures look like... they remind me of my very small exposure to Descent graphics...

[Snail]

Remind me, do things rust in space?

(don't get me wrong, it's a great model but the maps are a bit... Dodgy)

[Enioch]

@Titan:

no offense, but if you hand the maps over to a senior texturer, THEN it will look FS-ish.

Got anybody in mind?

This is good, but the textures look like... they remind me of my very small exposure to Descent graphics...

  Is that bad?

@Snail:

Sure they do. I think.

You just need oxygen for things to rust. An though I admit there's no oxygen on the outside, there's definitely some on the inside of the ship. Don't forget that this is a pretty old crate; there's been time enough for the rust to seep out. And there's always holing from micro-meteors, battle damage etc, which contributes to oxygen leaking, paint scraping off etc.

Good point though. It does look a bit too rusty.

Hmmmm

I got it!

Maybe some duct tape...

[Snail]

I'd suggest atmospheric burns from plasma blasts or planetary reentries, but not rust. For rust to form you need both water and oxygen, which I seriously doubt that there are both in space. Especially in the amounts needed for it to rust like that. That, and most FS ships aren't made out of iron.

[Enioch]

Right you are. I looked it up and water is a must. Funny. I always thought that it helped things along, but was not really necessary.

And you're right about the iron. Ooops...

Doesn't matter. I still got the texture psd files, and the rust is a separate layer. I'll just delete it and add some paint peeling off etc.

Will take some time, though.