This is a tutorial on bump mapping, for everyone who can use shaders and wish to push their pack that much farther.
Installation is sadly one one the things that took me the longest time. I looked everywhere and it looked like such a complicated process to even install it. I later found out that the mapping doesn't require it's own mod. The SEUS (Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders mod) is a well known program that is relatively easy to install. Instructions on that can be found on this thread, and the download updated to 1.7 can be found on his Facebook page, as he doesn't update via his forum thread anymore. I can't find the download on his Facebook page right now. I found it before, but I can't find it now, and I don't have Facebook, so I don't know where to look. So if anyone could show me a download link for it, it would help.
Bump mapping can be an amazing and beautiful addition to texture packs, and it will provide dynamic shadows to give the illusion of a 3-dimensional texture. The SEUS mod comes with an example pack to properly show the possibilities with such a program. Let's take a look shall we?
This is Ovo's Rustic pack. It is the example pack in the SEUS mod. Without the mod, it is a nice pack, but seems flat due to the very nature of Minecraft's texture wrapping. Here is an example of a pack without mapping.
You will see that it is quite flat, especially when viewed from an angle, and the shading in the texture itself never matches up exactly with the light in the game.
Here is an example of the improvement the mod makes.
That is quite an improvement! It can make Minecraft look much more realistic, and can make both the natural terrain, and your great builds, much more visually appealing.
To make a pack (prior to 1.5) compatible with bump mapping, you will need to make normal map versions of the textures. These images should be saved in the same spot as the originals, with the same name, but with the suffix "_n", for example: "dirt_n.png". This version of the image will be made out of special colours that will tell the game where the light will reach.
Note: this image shows the colours. The 1.6 format has individual files, I will update this image shortly.
Making the textures like this is a process that can be broken down into 2 main methods. The first being a filtered normal map, and the second being the more lengthy but more customize-able manual method. Let's have a gander at both.
Filtered
This method can save a lot of time, but requires one of two programs: either Photo Shop or Gimp. Photo Shop costs monay, but it does have a 30 day free trial, though Gimp is free, so I would recommend it if you would be using it mainly for bump-mapping.
This filter will automatically take the RGB values of each pixel, consider the brightness in comparison to neighbouring pixels, and provide a "normal map". A normal map is the name given to such a version of an image, it is usually done to gaming graphics, and uses these colours and derivatives of these colours to tell the game of where in each texture the light should be able to reach.
First, you must install the filter. The filter isn't on Photo Shop by default, and so you need to get it. You should close all instances of Photo Shop before installing it. The filter can be downloaded here.
To prepare your texture, you need to tile it.The filter will drop off textures at the edges, so blocks would have light and shadows on edges around each block. To avoid this, copy the texture and paste it a few times around the original. Do this until you have the texture tiled into a 3x3 texture square, this will ensure that the "edges" as recognized by the filter, won't be on the one texture in the middle. When you are done, you will cut out the one in the middle and use it as your texture.
Now you are ready for the filter. When you open the filter, a window should appear with some settings. You should leave the other settings, but focus on the sets of numbers in the middle. This will effect the size of each region considered when deciding the height of the area, and basically makes it sharp or soft. The higher the number, the softer it will be.
Here is an example of the result with 3x3 chosen. It is sharp and gets little details.
Here now is an example of a 9x9 comparison. It will be much softer, and while this might seem at first like a bad thing in all cases, it is actually very good for gradual rises on blocks like sand, dirt, clay, and more.
These can both be good when used right. It's up to you which you think would fit your texture best,
Manual
This is a more lengthy method that can use up a lot more time, but it has two main advantages, being that this method can get some additional detailing the way you want it and it can be done in any image editor! You could even do this in MSPaint, but you would need to do the terrain.png somewhere else.
To start, you will need the basic colours the filter uses. It uses a strange array of colours, and uses them in a way opposite of the general lighting means in my opinion. The top edges, where the light would reach, is darker in this than the other side. Here is a general palette, the top is where the light would reach, the bottom is where it wouldn't, the middle is the flat surface, and we're considering the light is coming from the top right. Basically, this palette is a square with bevelled edges, with the centre surface being the high point.
These colours must be in relative bevel-form, so wherever there is a top right corner, there must be a bottom left corner to ensure there is a recognizable bevel.. You can mix these colours for corners and soft bevels. The palette only contains the basic colours used.
Transparency
You didn't think that was all there is to it, did you? The colours only tell the game where the light should reach, but it bases actual depth on the transparency.
Here is an example of bricks without any transparency. It does have shaders, but is still flat.
And this is a screenshot of the bricks done with transparency. The more transparent a pixel is, the farther back it will be.
So it is quite a difference, and a very good one in most cases.
So, you are wanting to make this happen to yours? Then first you will need to make your texture bump mapped, then you will need to simply take your eraser and erase away. In most programs, the eraser will have both hardness and opacity options. The hardness being low will make the opacity gradually decrease to the edge of the brush. Opacity can also be used to change the opacity of the entire brush. Fiddle around with these to make your texture look right, but make sure it still tiles.
I can't think of anything else to put on, and I am probably missing something, so please tell me if I am, but for last, I will have a list of packs that support bump mapping.
Submit any packs you know of that have bump mapping support, and I will add them.
Lastly, this guide is far from finished, it isn't perfect, and there may be some inaccuracies, so if anyone could let me know of any problems, or even help me out by submitting things to put in, that would be a great help!
Note: I just updated this quickly at 11:00 at night, so it may not be done well, and the images aren't updated. I will fix this tomorrow.
This is a really good guide, shame I will never use it since I don't make packs higher than 32x, and I don't use shaders because my computer would explode. I never understood how people made bump mapping, but I was too lazy to do research. But now I know!
Thanks.
Great guide G, and nicely explained in each of the key areas as i would expect from you
You have covered more than enough for someone to follow and attempt their own normal maps.
I think a little more explanation on the transparency part with some visual references would help.
Some basic instruction on where you actually put the files and their naming, its a small thing but of use.
SEUS is developed with the OVO rustic redemption pack so that should go in the packs section.
A reference to the fact that this type of modding needs a pretty high end PC to get any usable type of FPS.
That's a few things i thought of for now
Will turn into a great guide, well done
Thank you! I will definitely be fixing this up and adding things, it was kind-of rushed. The worst possible thing happened while making this. I went into Photo Shop to make sure I had accurate information, and for things like the "example"s, and the filter window, but only to find out that my free trial ended! I needed to finish the guide today while it was still open, so I didn't have a whole lot of time...
I will check out those things. Thanks.
This is a really good guide, shame I will never use it since I don't make packs higher than 32x, and I don't use shaders because my computer would explode. I never understood how people made bump mapping, but I was too lazy to do research. But now I know!
Thanks.
"G" is kind-of gangster-ish. I got it from one of my favourite shows, and used it for a username for something. Then I made an account for something else and decided to use the same thing, and before I knew it, all my account usernames were "corner_g"! I've been thinking of a better username, but I also like that people will recognize me on other things, so it's sort of stuck. "corner_g", "G", "corner", whatever floats your boat.
And thanks! I was pretty much at the same spot you are about a month and a half ago. I tried to look up how to install the thing, but everything I found made it out to be this big program that needed this launcher, this programmer, this code based on this, and I never figured it out. I'm glad it helped!
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Fare well everyone! My time to retire has come! "And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
Um... that's not a bump map. It's a normal map. There's a difference. A bump map is a one-channel (grayscale) map that denotes height only. It doesn't allow for complex curvature that a normal map does.
I know this is probably just an animation student's gaff, but it bothers me.
Not a bad tutorial, though. The main problem is that you explain nothing about why those colors are used for the manual method, or how they translate into XYZ normals in a rendering engine. You know, the way in which the lighting engine calculates the 'fake' geometry built by a normal map. Also, I don't know how SEUS handles normalization errors in normal maps, but you can get some seriously wonky lighting if you don't get the math right for every pixel when doing this manually in a professional program, so I doubt it'll turn out well going into it blindly.
A Quick Google search turned up This Page in the Valve Developer Community Wiki about how to make a normal map with GIMP. It gives some good information. Those without Photoshop should check it out.
You are quite right that these are normal maps, although techinically they do work with SEUS on more or a bump level than a normal map level just not in grayscale.
I've done 3d in games for years so used both to a fairly high level. With Normal maps you create a very high polygon model and then a low polygon version. The normal map data is then mapped over the low poly mesh giving the appearance of very high detail this is a very basic explanation.
With SEUS from what i can see it actually works on the more simpler bump map method using a normal map palette ........all quite confusing. Even the the guy developing SEUS uses the term bumps and it does seem the engine extracts simple height data from the normal map. I do wonder why he didn't use grayscale maps but there must be a reason and i'm not a coder
It kinda means everyones right in a way as its a bit of a mash up or his just using it in a more simpler fashion. Also normal maps would be quicker to use that Bumps the way they work with the pixel shaders....now getting a bit more complex.
Also this i took from a 3d blog "Any technique that fakes a relief on flat geometry is called bump mapping. This includes everything from good old fashioned grayscale bumpmaps to normal maps and parallax maps"
I just realized how much space multi-quoting can take up in this post thing.
@Alvoria, I know I may have gotten some things inaccurate, and some things might be complete (unintentional) lies altogether, but I've been asked to do one, and I can make functional normal maps with only the knowledge I currently have, so providing anyone else with that much should help them to at least be able to make a functional normal map. This sounds really bad coming from the creator of a tutorial, but I have no idea what most of your post means. The thing is, I don't think most people creating maps of this sort will need to know where the engine gets its colours from, or how it originated. All I know is that I can create these maps in the end, so I'm helping others to reach that point too. If they are serious enough to go farther into really advanced stuff like that, then a thread here probably wouldn't be the best place for it anyway. This is a tutorial on how to get one functioning for a pack.
I may be wrong about it, but based off of some things I've read, and videos I've watched, a "normal map" can refer to the format of the terrain_nh.png, while "bump mapping" is the resulting shading and illusion on the textures shown in-game.
I will change anything inaccurate, if there is anything in particular I need to change.
@Taiine, Thank you! I'm thinking of possibly maybe adding a terrain_s, or reflective mapping, tutorial here, which luckily wouldn't require any specific program, but I will probably need some examples on Photo Shop at some point. Glad to have that assistance!
@Sheepy, Thanks! It means a lot coming from you. I've always admired your pixel art style, and C&C honesty, which I suppose pertains more to this. I hope it does help you!
I actually haven't made any normal maps for a 16x16 pack (probably because I'm bad at making the pixel art textures in the first place), so it would be something new to see!
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Fare well everyone! My time to retire has come! "And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
@G I explained it in fairly simple terms above without going into over complicating details.
You are quite right though whatever the terminology is doesn't actually matter as long as someone can follow the guide for the actual creation process. On my first post i suggested a few areas to pad out to make it a little clearer to what those steps are as they weren't quite as detailed as some of the other areas you explained.
This guide will be invaluable to anyone trying SEUS bumps. Are you doing a follow up guide on Specular or just an add on to this i guess would be fine?
@Sheep, i'm not sure that you will have enough pixel data to show height levels in a convincing manner.16x16 pixels doesn't give much to work with. I dont think i've seen a 16x16 SEUS bump pack for this reason. Try it
@G I explained it in fairly simple terms above without going into over complicating details.
You are quite right though whatever the terminology is doesn't actually matter as long as someone can follow the guide for the actual creation process. On my first post i suggested a few areas to pad out to make it a little clearer to what those steps are as they weren't quite as detailed as some of the other areas you explained.
This guide will be invaluable to anyone trying SEUS bumps. Are you doing a follow up guide on Specular or just an add on to this i guess would be fine?
@Sheep, i'm not sure that you will have enough pixel data to show height levels in a convincing manner.16x16 pixels doesn't give much to work with. I dont think i've seen a 16x16 SEUS bump pack for this reason. Try it
Thanks. I'll give your posts a better read through, and add images, text, fixes, and all that fun stuff to this post... Tomorrow. Ugh, I've been doing a new jungle pack, then a build in Minecraft, then my serene scape pack, then this tutorial for several hours ('cause of that whole expiration thing), then making some Redefined textures, etc. etc... I'm pretty tired at this point! I feel like the last two posts I've made (not particularly in this thread) tonight are more aggressive and less thought-out than they should be. I've gotta get some rest before I snap at someone.
As for the 16x16 thing, that is what I would have thought, but I made my own normal map for Tronic as a test on that type of simple pack. I did it manually, and even though it was very simplistic in design and only had like... 10 unique colours, it worked. So 16x16 may work if done well. Then again, pretty much anything can be good if done well.
Sigh, the shader installer gives me a "Fatal Error". I hate java so much.
EDIT.
Ok, turns out i had the older version. Configuring this thing is pretty terrible though.
Btw, the Ultra Lite version doesn't have the bump mapping, and i don't have the patience to try the others
You don't need Photoshop as well. Just find a 'normal map' plugin for GIMP. It's identical
I'll certainly try it then, even if just for experimentation reasons. I think the main thing for 16x would be just not overdoing it, that would look pretty bad. I'll probably just use it for cracks between wood, cobble, stone, etc. and maybe the deeper sections of dirt and stuff. Everything else will be really subtle. I'll be really happy if it turns out well though, would certainly make my pack even more unique!
@Taiine, I had the same problem, I knew about the shaders for a good year or so, but just last month I got a new computer capable of running them. Now that I can, let me tell you: enjoy MCPatcher now, because if/when you get a computer or make your current computer capable of running the shaders, you really get attached to them. Normally I would be using these snapshots, but I'm too attached to the shaders now that I can't go to a newer version.
@Balduran, That thread in the link only has versions updated to 1.3.1 or so. Sonic updates his shaders via his Facebook page now. That's where I got mine. I would like to link you there, but I can't seem to find the download link right now. Either Facebook is hiding it somewhere (I don't have Facebook and wouldn't know where to look), or he took it down temporarily for some reason. Kind-of annoying that right when I make a tutorial, he takes it down for some reason.
Thanks, I'll fix that now. My trial version of Photo Shop ran out last night, and as far as I knew, it was the only compatible program, so I had to leave it open. I just put my computer in sleep overnight, and can't close it.
Though I will lose it when I need to shut down or restart my computer. I'll try Gimp then.
@Sheep, I think it would look good, you are headed in the right direction already: subtle shaders. some of my HD packs have overly exaggerated mapping, so it doesn't keep the same feel anymore. Yours would look nice with subtle shaders like that! One thing I should warn you of beforehand though: make a dark lightmap. bump mapping is an extension of SEUS, so if you don't use that part already, then it makes packs so much brighter that it is nearly unplayable!.. Well, I think mine might be too bright to begin with, but SEUS does make it very bright, so I would recommend you make a dark lightmap if you haven't already.
You are quite right that these are normal maps, although techinically they do work with SEUS on more or a bump level than a normal map level just not in grayscale.
-snip-
With SEUS from what i can see it actually works on the more simpler bump map method using a normal map palette ........all quite confusing. Even the the guy developing SEUS uses the term bumps and it does seem the engine extracts simple height data from the normal map. I do wonder why he didn't use grayscale maps but there must be a reason and i'm not a coder
Yea, that is weird. While I don't intend to ever include support for SEUS in my packs, I'm not curious how it reads the height data. My first guess is that it's a "blue channel" map. Then again, if the alpha channel is used as a depth channel, I don't see a reason for this. Why not just use a single channel and have it be 0 - 1 depth?
Actually... Hmmm... if he assumed that most people wouldn't make their image a proper single-channel image he might have coded it as a blue-channel depth map to cut out the need to convert three channels into the single one. Granted this makes for needlessly large images but it makes sense from a certain standpoint.
It kinda means everyones right in a way as its a bit of a mash up or his just using it in a more simpler fashion. Also normal maps would be quicker to use that Bumps the way they work with the pixel shaders....now getting a bit more complex.
Yea... but as it stands it seems like he's adding a needless layer of complexity for the artists to create these things. Oh well. I'm going to assume he's got his reasons for this unconventional setup.
Also this i took from a 3d blog "Any technique that fakes a relief on flat geometry is called bump mapping. This includes everything from good old fashioned grayscale bumpmaps to normal maps and parallax maps"
I both agree and disagree with this. The sentiment is correct, but most if not all of the people I've worked with make a distinction among them just to avoid confusion during discussion. Bump map is a generic term, yes, but usually used to specifically mean the grayscale maps.
@Corner_g: The reason I made mention of needing to know why specific colors are used, and the normalization of the map, is because in a proper normal map the color corresponds to the angle the engine is pretending an area is. The three colors always have to average out, otherwise the engine won't understand how a particular pixel can be at multiple angles at the same time since, you know, geometry doesn't work that way. If SEUS doesn't really use the normal map to, well, map normals; then this is a mute point and there's no need to really understand it.
Shame it doesn't really work as a normal map. It would be kinda fun creating a "round" Minecraft Texture pack using a big of normal-map know-how.
I realize that the tutorial may be lacking information on the colours. For the edge colouring, I will add it as it could mess up the shaders entirely, but a lot of things I could say in the tutorial will not pertain to the texture pack creator's ability to make normal maps for their pack, so I haven't added them. You raise some good points, but in a manner that I can't really translate to a reader-friendly guide. I would add the info you're trying to give me, but I would need it in a more understandable fashion that seems less like trying to show off how much you know about it. The tutorial is to provide all information people will need to create a normal map, and all this other information, while it may be true, is not going to assist in creating normal maps.
Thinking realistically here, this is for the SEUS mod, and it supports one type of mapping, so I will add anything that new pack creators will need to make one of their own. That is the goal of this tutorial, and as such it needs to be reader friendly. So if you have anything you think I need to add, then it needs to actually pertain directly to anyone creating maps for their textures, and it needs to be remotely reader friendly, then I will add it.
I agree G.......although a good discussion on the deeper complexity's of how it all works its not needed for the tutorial and will baffle many who don't understand or don't need to understand the technical jargon to get a good result following your guide
This is a tutorial on bump mapping, for everyone who can use shaders and wish to push their pack that much farther.
Installation is sadly one one the things that took me the longest time. I looked everywhere and it looked like such a complicated process to even install it. I later found out that the mapping doesn't require it's own mod. The SEUS (Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders mod) is a well known program that is relatively easy to install. Instructions on that can be found on this thread, and the download updated to 1.7 can be found on his Facebook page, as he doesn't update via his forum thread anymore. I can't find the download on his Facebook page right now. I found it before, but I can't find it now, and I don't have Facebook, so I don't know where to look. So if anyone could show me a download link for it, it would help.
Bump mapping can be an amazing and beautiful addition to texture packs, and it will provide dynamic shadows to give the illusion of a 3-dimensional texture. The SEUS mod comes with an example pack to properly show the possibilities with such a program. Let's take a look shall we?
This is Ovo's Rustic pack. It is the example pack in the SEUS mod. Without the mod, it is a nice pack, but seems flat due to the very nature of Minecraft's texture wrapping. Here is an example of a pack without mapping.
You will see that it is quite flat, especially when viewed from an angle, and the shading in the texture itself never matches up exactly with the light in the game.
Here is an example of the improvement the mod makes.
That is quite an improvement! It can make Minecraft look much more realistic, and can make both the natural terrain, and your great builds, much more visually appealing.
To make a pack (prior to 1.5) compatible with bump mapping, you will need to make normal map versions of the textures. These images should be saved in the same spot as the originals, with the same name, but with the suffix "_n", for example: "dirt_n.png". This version of the image will be made out of special colours that will tell the game where the light will reach.
Note: this image shows the colours. The 1.6 format has individual files, I will update this image shortly.
Making the textures like this is a process that can be broken down into 2 main methods. The first being a filtered normal map, and the second being the more lengthy but more customize-able manual method. Let's have a gander at both.
Filtered
This method can save a lot of time, but requires one of two programs: either Photo Shop or Gimp. Photo Shop costs monay, but it does have a 30 day free trial, though Gimp is free, so I would recommend it if you would be using it mainly for bump-mapping.
This filter will automatically take the RGB values of each pixel, consider the brightness in comparison to neighbouring pixels, and provide a "normal map". A normal map is the name given to such a version of an image, it is usually done to gaming graphics, and uses these colours and derivatives of these colours to tell the game of where in each texture the light should be able to reach.
First, you must install the filter. The filter isn't on Photo Shop by default, and so you need to get it. You should close all instances of Photo Shop before installing it. The filter can be downloaded here.
To prepare your texture, you need to tile it.The filter will drop off textures at the edges, so blocks would have light and shadows on edges around each block. To avoid this, copy the texture and paste it a few times around the original. Do this until you have the texture tiled into a 3x3 texture square, this will ensure that the "edges" as recognized by the filter, won't be on the one texture in the middle. When you are done, you will cut out the one in the middle and use it as your texture.
Now you are ready for the filter. When you open the filter, a window should appear with some settings. You should leave the other settings, but focus on the sets of numbers in the middle. This will effect the size of each region considered when deciding the height of the area, and basically makes it sharp or soft. The higher the number, the softer it will be.
Here is an example of the result with 3x3 chosen. It is sharp and gets little details.
Here now is an example of a 9x9 comparison. It will be much softer, and while this might seem at first like a bad thing in all cases, it is actually very good for gradual rises on blocks like sand, dirt, clay, and more.
These can both be good when used right. It's up to you which you think would fit your texture best,
Manual
This is a more lengthy method that can use up a lot more time, but it has two main advantages, being that this method can get some additional detailing the way you want it and it can be done in any image editor! You could even do this in MSPaint, but you would need to do the terrain.png somewhere else.
To start, you will need the basic colours the filter uses. It uses a strange array of colours, and uses them in a way opposite of the general lighting means in my opinion. The top edges, where the light would reach, is darker in this than the other side. Here is a general palette, the top is where the light would reach, the bottom is where it wouldn't, the middle is the flat surface, and we're considering the light is coming from the top right. Basically, this palette is a square with bevelled edges, with the centre surface being the high point.
These colours must be in relative bevel-form, so wherever there is a top right corner, there must be a bottom left corner to ensure there is a recognizable bevel.. You can mix these colours for corners and soft bevels. The palette only contains the basic colours used.
Transparency
You didn't think that was all there is to it, did you? The colours only tell the game where the light should reach, but it bases actual depth on the transparency.
Here is an example of bricks without any transparency. It does have shaders, but is still flat.
And this is a screenshot of the bricks done with transparency. The more transparent a pixel is, the farther back it will be.
So it is quite a difference, and a very good one in most cases.
So, you are wanting to make this happen to yours? Then first you will need to make your texture bump mapped, then you will need to simply take your eraser and erase away. In most programs, the eraser will have both hardness and opacity options. The hardness being low will make the opacity gradually decrease to the edge of the brush. Opacity can also be used to change the opacity of the entire brush. Fiddle around with these to make your texture look right, but make sure it still tiles.
I can't think of anything else to put on, and I am probably missing something, so please tell me if I am, but for last, I will have a list of packs that support bump mapping.
Submit any packs you know of that have bump mapping support, and I will add them.
Lastly, this guide is far from finished, it isn't perfect, and there may be some inaccuracies, so if anyone could let me know of any problems, or even help me out by submitting things to put in, that would be a great help!
Note: I just updated this quickly at 11:00 at night, so it may not be done well, and the images aren't updated. I will fix this tomorrow.
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
You have covered more than enough for someone to follow and attempt their own normal maps.
I think a little more explanation on the transparency part with some visual references would help.
Some basic instruction on where you actually put the files and their naming, its a small thing but of use.
SEUS is developed with the OVO rustic redemption pack so that should go in the packs section.
A reference to the fact that this type of modding needs a pretty high end PC to get any usable type of FPS.
That's a few things i thought of for now
Will turn into a great guide, well done
This is a really good guide, shame I will never use it since I don't make packs higher than 32x, and I don't use shaders because my computer would explode. I never understood how people made bump mapping, but I was too lazy to do research. But now I know!
Thanks.
Thank you! I will definitely be fixing this up and adding things, it was kind-of rushed. The worst possible thing happened while making this. I went into Photo Shop to make sure I had accurate information, and for things like the "example"s, and the filter window, but only to find out that my free trial ended! I needed to finish the guide today while it was still open, so I didn't have a whole lot of time...
I will check out those things. Thanks.
"G" is kind-of gangster-ish. I got it from one of my favourite shows, and used it for a username for something. Then I made an account for something else and decided to use the same thing, and before I knew it, all my account usernames were "corner_g"! I've been thinking of a better username, but I also like that people will recognize me on other things, so it's sort of stuck. "corner_g", "G", "corner", whatever floats your boat.
And thanks! I was pretty much at the same spot you are about a month and a half ago. I tried to look up how to install the thing, but everything I found made it out to be this big program that needed this launcher, this programmer, this code based on this, and I never figured it out. I'm glad it helped!
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
I know this is probably just an animation student's gaff, but it bothers me.
Not a bad tutorial, though. The main problem is that you explain nothing about why those colors are used for the manual method, or how they translate into XYZ normals in a rendering engine. You know, the way in which the lighting engine calculates the 'fake' geometry built by a normal map. Also, I don't know how SEUS handles normalization errors in normal maps, but you can get some seriously wonky lighting if you don't get the math right for every pixel when doing this manually in a professional program, so I doubt it'll turn out well going into it blindly.
A Quick Google search turned up This Page in the Valve Developer Community Wiki about how to make a normal map with GIMP. It gives some good information. Those without Photoshop should check it out.
You are quite right that these are normal maps, although techinically they do work with SEUS on more or a bump level than a normal map level just not in grayscale.
I've done 3d in games for years so used both to a fairly high level. With Normal maps you create a very high polygon model and then a low polygon version. The normal map data is then mapped over the low poly mesh giving the appearance of very high detail this is a very basic explanation.
With SEUS from what i can see it actually works on the more simpler bump map method using a normal map palette ........all quite confusing. Even the the guy developing SEUS uses the term bumps and it does seem the engine extracts simple height data from the normal map. I do wonder why he didn't use grayscale maps but there must be a reason and i'm not a coder
It kinda means everyones right in a way as its a bit of a mash up or his just using it in a more simpler fashion. Also normal maps would be quicker to use that Bumps the way they work with the pixel shaders....now getting a bit more complex.
Also this i took from a 3d blog "Any technique that fakes a relief on flat geometry is called bump mapping. This includes everything from good old fashioned grayscale bumpmaps to normal maps and parallax maps"
Seriously though, this is a very good tutorial, very well written and everything so if I ever do add it to my pack, I know where to look for help!
@Alvoria, I know I may have gotten some things inaccurate, and some things might be complete (unintentional) lies altogether, but I've been asked to do one, and I can make functional normal maps with only the knowledge I currently have, so providing anyone else with that much should help them to at least be able to make a functional normal map. This sounds really bad coming from the creator of a tutorial, but I have no idea what most of your post means. The thing is, I don't think most people creating maps of this sort will need to know where the engine gets its colours from, or how it originated. All I know is that I can create these maps in the end, so I'm helping others to reach that point too. If they are serious enough to go farther into really advanced stuff like that, then a thread here probably wouldn't be the best place for it anyway. This is a tutorial on how to get one functioning for a pack.
I may be wrong about it, but based off of some things I've read, and videos I've watched, a "normal map" can refer to the format of the terrain_nh.png, while "bump mapping" is the resulting shading and illusion on the textures shown in-game.
I will change anything inaccurate, if there is anything in particular I need to change.
@Taiine, Thank you! I'm thinking of possibly maybe adding a terrain_s, or reflective mapping, tutorial here, which luckily wouldn't require any specific program, but I will probably need some examples on Photo Shop at some point. Glad to have that assistance!
@Sheepy, Thanks! It means a lot coming from you. I've always admired your pixel art style, and C&C honesty, which I suppose pertains more to this. I hope it does help you!
I actually haven't made any normal maps for a 16x16 pack (probably because I'm bad at making the pixel art textures in the first place), so it would be something new to see!
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
You are quite right though whatever the terminology is doesn't actually matter as long as someone can follow the guide for the actual creation process. On my first post i suggested a few areas to pad out to make it a little clearer to what those steps are as they weren't quite as detailed as some of the other areas you explained.
This guide will be invaluable to anyone trying SEUS bumps. Are you doing a follow up guide on Specular or just an add on to this i guess would be fine?
@Sheep, i'm not sure that you will have enough pixel data to show height levels in a convincing manner.16x16 pixels doesn't give much to work with. I dont think i've seen a 16x16 SEUS bump pack for this reason. Try it
Thanks. I'll give your posts a better read through, and add images, text, fixes, and all that fun stuff to this post... Tomorrow. Ugh, I've been doing a new jungle pack, then a build in Minecraft, then my serene scape pack, then this tutorial for several hours ('cause of that whole expiration thing), then making some Redefined textures, etc. etc... I'm pretty tired at this point! I feel like the last two posts I've made (not particularly in this thread) tonight are more aggressive and less thought-out than they should be. I've gotta get some rest before I snap at someone.
As for the 16x16 thing, that is what I would have thought, but I made my own normal map for Tronic as a test on that type of simple pack. I did it manually, and even though it was very simplistic in design and only had like... 10 unique colours, it worked. So 16x16 may work if done well. Then again, pretty much anything can be good if done well.
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
EDIT.
Ok, turns out i had the older version. Configuring this thing is pretty terrible though.
Btw, the Ultra Lite version doesn't have the bump mapping, and i don't have the patience to try the others
You don't need Photoshop as well. Just find a 'normal map' plugin for GIMP. It's identical
...But that's just my opinion.
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@Balduran, That thread in the link only has versions updated to 1.3.1 or so. Sonic updates his shaders via his Facebook page now. That's where I got mine. I would like to link you there, but I can't seem to find the download link right now. Either Facebook is hiding it somewhere (I don't have Facebook and wouldn't know where to look), or he took it down temporarily for some reason. Kind-of annoying that right when I make a tutorial, he takes it down for some reason.
Thanks, I'll fix that now. My trial version of Photo Shop ran out last night, and as far as I knew, it was the only compatible program, so I had to leave it open. I just put my computer in sleep overnight, and can't close it.
Though I will lose it when I need to shut down or restart my computer. I'll try Gimp then.
@Sheep, I think it would look good, you are headed in the right direction already: subtle shaders. some of my HD packs have overly exaggerated mapping, so it doesn't keep the same feel anymore. Yours would look nice with subtle shaders like that! One thing I should warn you of beforehand though: make a dark lightmap. bump mapping is an extension of SEUS, so if you don't use that part already, then it makes packs so much brighter that it is nearly unplayable!.. Well, I think mine might be too bright to begin with, but SEUS does make it very bright, so I would recommend you make a dark lightmap if you haven't already.
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
Thanks! Glad you like it!
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump
Actually... Hmmm... if he assumed that most people wouldn't make their image a proper single-channel image he might have coded it as a blue-channel depth map to cut out the need to convert three channels into the single one. Granted this makes for needlessly large images but it makes sense from a certain standpoint.
Yea... but as it stands it seems like he's adding a needless layer of complexity for the artists to create these things. Oh well. I'm going to assume he's got his reasons for this unconventional setup.
I both agree and disagree with this. The sentiment is correct, but most if not all of the people I've worked with make a distinction among them just to avoid confusion during discussion. Bump map is a generic term, yes, but usually used to specifically mean the grayscale maps.
@Corner_g: The reason I made mention of needing to know why specific colors are used, and the normalization of the map, is because in a proper normal map the color corresponds to the angle the engine is pretending an area is. The three colors always have to average out, otherwise the engine won't understand how a particular pixel can be at multiple angles at the same time since, you know, geometry doesn't work that way. If SEUS doesn't really use the normal map to, well, map normals; then this is a mute point and there's no need to really understand it.
Shame it doesn't really work as a normal map. It would be kinda fun creating a "round" Minecraft Texture pack using a big of normal-map know-how.
I realize that the tutorial may be lacking information on the colours. For the edge colouring, I will add it as it could mess up the shaders entirely, but a lot of things I could say in the tutorial will not pertain to the texture pack creator's ability to make normal maps for their pack, so I haven't added them. You raise some good points, but in a manner that I can't really translate to a reader-friendly guide. I would add the info you're trying to give me, but I would need it in a more understandable fashion that seems less like trying to show off how much you know about it. The tutorial is to provide all information people will need to create a normal map, and all this other information, while it may be true, is not going to assist in creating normal maps.
Thinking realistically here, this is for the SEUS mod, and it supports one type of mapping, so I will add anything that new pack creators will need to make one of their own. That is the goal of this tutorial, and as such it needs to be reader friendly. So if you have anything you think I need to add, then it needs to actually pertain directly to anyone creating maps for their textures, and it needs to be remotely reader friendly, then I will add it.
"And with that, POW! I'm gone." ---Lord Crump