[shiv]

Hi.

I've found a program crazybump here: http://www.crazybump.com/

I'd like to convert my maps to a bump maps. Can you tell me: Should I convert shine and glowmaps to or only maps?

Thanks.

[Water]

Hi.

I've found a program crazybump here: http://www.crazybump.com/

I'd like to convert my maps to a bump maps. Can you tell me: Should I convert shine and glowmaps to or only maps?

Thanks.

Shine - No
Glow - No

Converting the colour map to a normal map usually doesn't look very good.
Usually the best bet is to create a special map and use Crazybump or xNormal to convert it to a  Normal map.
The last step is to convert it to DXT5nm format.

[Herra Tohtori]

Actually, the end result depends largely on the texture in case. Some types of textures convert surprizingly readily to a normal map with CrazyBump, some... not so much. Textures where there are clear seam lines visible, usually work out well. But CrazyBump reads all great enough contrast changes as changes in elevation, so if there are any patterns painted in the texture, that's gonna show in the normal map and not in a good way very likely.

None of the normal maps generated from colour texture by CrazyBump beat the end result from custom handcrafted normal map from an experienced texture artist, though, but as a makeshift solution for us poor peons waiting for the normal maps to appear in MediaVP's, CrazyBump can make some models look surprizingly good with the minimum amount of work and time invested.

I wouldn't put them directly to MediaVP's, but for some ships, crazybumping the texture actually works. For example this ain't too shabby - there's an ugly seam in the middle, the surface detail is a bit overshot and the detail is not on par with what a specially crafted elevation map would produce, but as a whole, I daresay I rather pick this normal map than none at all.

[castor]

Interesting... Did you try blurring the original texture before creating the normal map?
The Selective Gaussian Blur (Gimp) looks promising for this purpose.

Original:


With SGB:

[Herra Tohtori]

It kinda depends. With some surfaces you would want to bump the surface material detail as well, like is the case (IMHO) with Herc 2's engine blocks.

But if you can selective blur the seamlines directly and cleanly out of a texture, that would give a good basis for making an elevation map from which you could make the bump map. The fact stands that eyeball mk.1 and attached brain are still the most efficient and accurate tool of identifying 3D shapes from a flat texture, so if you want a good normal/height map to appear with any probability, you'll gonna have to make the elevation map yourself, perhaps partially based on what CrazyBump makes but some editing is definitely needed.

And I'd say that the relative success of CrazyBumping the Herc 2 map is a bit of a fluke anyway; most maps don't convert as well.