[MiniSiets]

Don't know if this is of any use to you guys, but since I heard you were doing normal maps on your ships, this might be a good temporary solution for ships still waiting to get their normal map makeover.

The program is called "CrazyBump" and what it does supposedly is take any texture and create a normal map from it or specular depending on what you choose. It will do all the calculations itself in figuring out what would make the texture look best when lighting is applied to its normal maps. Just posting this in case it might be of use to guys. Sorry if this topic may have come up already.

http://crazybump.com

[FireCrack]

Wha.... preety neat...

[Cobra]

It generates normal maps pretty damn well, it makes nVidia's normal map filter look like crap in comparison. The only problem is is that there is noise along the lines of what I had when I set the "least CPU" option in Photoshop to save my first normal map. Photoshop and FSO are the only ones that can see the noise though.

[EDIT] Okay, every format seems to have random noise.

[EDIT2] Unless this can be fixed, I say this'll have to be passed on and have the FSU team continue to work on normal maps the way they have been.

[Woolie Wool]

I don't get any noise/uglyboxes on my normal maps.

[nvsblmnc]

[EDIT] Okay, every format seems to have random noise.

Jus a guess:

Do you have any dithering options set when you save the files?  I've found that doing so can introduce noise into othewise clear images.  (Or it might by that I'm just bad at making textures)

[Cobra]

This is what I was told:

I think I see the problem.

If your texture dimensions aren't powers of two, CrazyBump saves with DXTN compression even if you chose a non-DXTN format.

I'll let you know when there's a fix, but for now, I recommend using a format other than DDS, or using power-of-two textures

I'm not quite sure what power-of-two textures are, since I'm relatively new to all this, and I don't know how to CREATE power-of-two textures, or, if it's possible, if FSO supports power-of-two.

[Vasudan Admiral]

FSO only supports power of two DDS files - which includes the normal map types. Power of two simply means that the horizontal and vertical dimensions (ie, pixel counts) of the image are a number that is a power of two, such as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 up to 2048 (bigger than this and FS will squish it).

So basically if you can create an image where you specify how many horizontal pixels by how many vertical, you can make a power of two resolution texture.

[Cobra]

Well, the Hermes textures are power-of-two, since they're all 2048 x 2048. So it's a .dds saving issue.

[bkd86]

There will still be noise because you have to turn up the intensity of crazybump to get the detail on some textures to pop out, also it is taking all the color data and making the normal map from it so unless the color is a uniform color with no variation you will get grain etc. Thats why you have to use this in conjunction with editing and painting your normal maps separately for currently modeled ships. Unless you are making a high poly ship then baking the normal map onto a low poly one, or painting the normal map specifically your going to have to do more work to get the texture to work. Also what VA said applies, lots of the ships have strange texture sizes.

[blackhole]

Well, the Hermes textures are power-of-two, since they're all 2048 x 2048. So it's a .dds saving issue.

The hermes is an escape pod, correct?

Why the bloody hell do you have 2048x2048 textures on a goddamn ESCAPE POD?!

Surely there are other, less totally useless ways to make peoples' GPUs cry.

[Cobra]

Don't look at me, I didn't make them 2048 x 2048.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Well the one in the MVPs is 512x512.

[Cobra]

Not the new ones, maybe. I'm pretty sure the 3.6.9 Zetas were the ones that had the 2048x.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Nope, 512 there too.

[Cobra]

How the hell did I get 2048 x 2048 maps then?

Okay, now for some reason the normal map filter for Photoshop is producing random noise too.

[EDIT] Okay, uh... something is definitely wrong here, because now all of a sudden all my normal maps are being saved with random noise.

[Vasudan Admiral]

What plugin are you using? It should be something like "Nvidia dds Format v8.23" or newer if there is one. If that's what you have, then what are all the other settings you're using?

Depending on how you're making these normal maps it may not be the DDS plugin at all actually - so what's the whole process you're using?

[Hellstryker]

Watch, it'l turn out hes using the nvidia plugin with an ATi card or somthing 

[Cobra]

What plugin are you using? It should be something like "Nvidia dds Format v8.23" or newer if there is one. If that's what you have, then what are all the other settings you're using?

Depending on how you're making these normal maps it may not be the DDS plugin at all actually - so what's the whole process you're using?

I use the nVidia normal map filter and the nVidia .dds plugin, which is version 8.23. I got it working correctly now. This **** is weird.

Watch, it'l turn out hes using the nvidia plugin with an ATi card or somthing 

Ohmigod! You're right!

Not. I have an 8600 GT.

[Herra Tohtori]

Watch, it'l turn out hes using the nvidia plugin with an ATi card or somthing 

Makes no difference since GPU has no part in saving a DDS file, it just uses them... as far as I know anyway.

Random noise sounds like You're Doing it Wrong, but how, I have no idea. Accumulated compression artefacts perhaps?

Anyway, I personally endorse GIMP Normalmap plugin for generating a normal map from elevation map, saving as TGA, then converting that to DXT5nm via nvDXT command line utility.

[Cobra]

This is what I get with CrazyBump.