[DaBrain]

Yeah, the mod starter pack is dead...

Well, the stuff goes directly to the media Vps.

Anyway... I made another one.

Comparison shots:
 

[WeatherOp]

Nice, those maps and lighting really give an organic look to that texture. Now do the Moloch maps. 

[starfox]

Looks brilliant ! 
Yeah, I was looking for the download link too, kinda first thing you look, when you come across pics like that. 

[CP5670]

These normal maps look fantastic in general, but does anyone else think they make the models look far too dark? That Zeus in particular looks almost like a different ship, more like the Zeus DH that Black Wolf made some years ago.

[castor]

A bit dark, but I'd guess its due to DaBrain's ambient lighting setting? (because these are ships lab shots).

[Ghost]

Pleeeeeease give us a download link.

[TrashMan]

eye poppin goodnes!

[Marcus Vesper]

These normal maps look fantastic in general, but does anyone else think they make the models look far too dark? That Zeus in particular looks almost like a different ship, more like the Zeus DH that Black Wolf made some years ago.

Turning on "no emissive light" and setting the ambient light very low will do that.  You probably play with a much higher ambient then DaBrain was using for those shots.

[Darklord42]

Wow its like you don't even have to do a hi poly model anymore.

[ARSPR]

Wow its like you don't even have to do a hi poly model anymore.

That's the main point of normal and/or parallax mapping... You can simulate a lot of detail over flat surfaces, (ie. few polys), using lighting and pixel displacement tricks.

3D modelers have to find the right balance in each new ship. But with a good texture usage, ultra-hi poly models can become history. I even feel that some of the actual hi-poly models could be downgraded without any appreciable quality loss. (IIRC what Taylor somewhere posted, hi-poly models are quite a penalty for the actual collision detection code).

[Vasudan Admiral]

Other way round - putting on more polys is preferable to adding a normal map in cases where either method would deliver the required detail.

But you're right about the balance. Some Vasudan or Shivan ships like the support ship DaB has shown there may not need a HTL upgrade if given a good enough normal map, but for most others it will be a matter of finding a good balance. On a ship like the Lucifer for example, normal mapping works very nicely, but I'm not yet sure if the HTL Arcadia will need normal maps if I can instead model in most of the detail, as opposed to making a set of huge normal maps.

Another factor is that HTLing takes a whole lot longer than making a good normal map, and so in cases where doing that would work, it would be preferable to just make the normal map and work on something that really does need an upgrade.

[DaBrain]

@all
Yes my ambient settings are pretty dark. I like it that way.



Well, I got some new stuff.

[Darklord42]

Other way round - putting on more polys is preferable to adding a normal map in cases where either method would deliver the required detail.

But you're right about the balance. Some Vasudan or Shivan ships like the support ship DaB has shown there may not need a HTL upgrade if given a good enough normal map, but for most others it will be a matter of finding a good balance. On a ship like the Lucifer for example, normal mapping works very nicely, but I'm not yet sure if the HTL Arcadia will need normal maps if I can instead model in most of the detail, as opposed to making a set of huge normal maps.

Another factor is that HTLing takes a whole lot longer than making a good normal map, and so in cases where doing that would work, it would be preferable to just make the normal map and work on something that really does need an upgrade.

Which is actually better on system resources?

@DaBrain.   those are magnificent!

[Hades]

Question about the normal maps with Media VPs:Are the normal maps going to be in a different VP than the maps?
Because my computer can't handle them and I didn't want unneeded maps taking up my space.
BTW nice pics.

[Raven2001]

Aparently im a bit late on the latest developments... but I gotta say

FINALLY we have normal mapping... look at that Artemis... it barely needs any HTLization at all

[DaBrain]

Question about the normal maps with Media VPs:Are the normal maps going to be in a different VP than the maps?
Because my computer can't handle them and I didn't want unneeded maps taking up my space.
BTW nice pics.

They will be in the "mv_assets" VP. Together with alll maps and models.

However they won't get loaded unless you activate normal mapping in the launcher.

[Hades]

They wont work on my computer, it is a laptop.

[Marcus Vesper]

Like DaBrain just said, it won't try to load the normal maps unless you specifically tell the launcher to enable that feature.  Other then making the VP a bit larger, it won't have any real drawbacks for people who can't run them, and it's probably less confusing this way.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Which is actually better on system resources?

That all depends on just how far you want to go in terms of detail. If you intend to have all the hull plates and other details look 3d, go with a normal map in preference to modelling in that detail, because if you modelled it all in you'd be looking at thousands and thousands of extra polys.

However, normal mapping is currently best suited to only that kind of detail. If you need larger or more complex detail, then you'd be much better off modelling it in. An example of this is the Arcadia - even its small detail is too big to accurately portray using normal mapping, so I'll be modelling it in using detail boxes and stuff.

Basically: modelling it in is far less resource intensive than adding a normal map, but only up to a point. Beyond that point you'd be wasting thousands of polys where a normal map could be used instead.

[jr2]

<snip>

Would you be able to use that Artemis model on the Artemis D.H. variant, or is it too different?