Textures that need love

[Serpentine]

Short and sweet:

 

Ok, there have been a number of people asking for textures to be looked at, since it's quite impossible to find a lot of bad textures by easily measurable metrics of resolution etc, I appeal to you the loving mappers and average person on the street who wants to help out with a pretty basic task.

 

Please give me the name/s of textures which bug you and if possible a reason which it is sub-par, if you dont know technical details just describe it loosely, it would help greatly!

 

Thanks!

[Serpentine]

In this post I will maintain a list of reported issues and updates as to status.

 

Material name - Reason/Change - Status

Needs attention:

plaster/plaster_mossy - normal doesnt make sense, could be smoothed a bit - need to check sources

carpet/rugs/ornate_black_gold01 - normal is too strong - convert to height and adjust carefully

metal/detailed/panel_square_dark01 - very low res 128x128 - check source / remake

metal/flat/tiling_1d/rough_iron_bar - neeeeeeds love, 32 px height?? - remake

nature/bark/old_rough01 - low res - find replacement/check source

nature/foliage/hedge_001 - low res - replace (Serp should have very similar)

textures/darkmod/roof/shingle_shiny_grey01 - doesn't need alpha chan - remove alpha chan

textures/darkmod/roof/slate_multicolor - doesn't need alpha chan - remove alpha chan

models/dtable - low res, lovely models and could just use some love

roof/shingles_red_flat - normals seem bad

old_worn_blocks_001 - boring normalmap with only sharp edges, needs some love.

 

Large collection issues:

/fabric/ - most files are TGA for diffuse, reason to not be dds? some normals are too strong - check with Spring

 

Needs checking:

wood/panels/molding_leaves - Low res and artifacts - I think this has been updated, still looks quite bad

 

Fixed:

ceiling_ornament_precious_001 - Removed directional lighting highlights - fixed normal and diffuse, in svn soon.

wood/panels/molding_grey - very flat and over-sharp detail normalmap -hand made normal heightmap, way better normals

stone/brick/blocks_brown - Bad normals, artifacts - remade at native res, hard to approximate

bricks/red_angled_ground - messy normal, looks waxy - remade normalmap

bricks/red_angled_clean - dds file is damaged - replaced dds, updated normal

wood/dark_rough - too noisey and over sharp - remade normal looks more like planks

blocks_mixedsize02_multicolour - too bright, very dull normalmap - remade normal and adjusted diffuse to match.

window/shutters_grey_closed - normal is flat, metal needs to be extruded - remade normal with these changes

roof/rooftiles_ceramic_* - bottom of tile is incorrect - fixed

Edited January 15, 2011 by Serpentine

[Bikerdude]

I havent got a clue on this, so firstly how do I report a texture for improvement..?

[Serpentine]

Easiest way is to find the material in the DR Media browser, select it and at the bottom it will say something like :

"Shader : textures/darkmod/wood/panels/ceiling_ornament_precious_001"

 

That's exactly what I'd like

 

An example report would be something like :

 

textures/darkmod/wood/panels/ceiling_ornament_precious_001 - The material has directional lighting highlights which look a bit silly

[rich_is_bored]

An alternative is to run through the maps with r_showsurfaceinfo turned on and make a note of names of the textures that don't look so hot.

[Mortem Desino]

textures/darkmod/plaster/plaster_mossy

in materials/tdm_plaster.mtr

 

Diffuse and Normal have bad compression artifacts (check SVN texture_src?)

[Fidcal]

tdm_nature_grass.mtr

textures/darkmod/nature/grass/short_dry_grass_dark

 

This texture tiles badly in both senses: The edges do not match well and there is a very dark patch which clearly repeats. Tiles such as grass which can extend over a big area look dreadful if a mark is repeated. If that dark area could be toned down a little it might help. It can never be perfect of course. In my own map the repetitiveness is all lost in darkness hopefully.

 

But here is a case where is it better just to make a new grass texture? Suppose someone has a very small area of grass. Here that dark area adds variety and character and is not repeated, or at least not significantly.

 

I am not sure if there is a lighter version of this same grass. There is a light grass but I don't think it's the same.

[Serpentine]

A bump - someone was reporting textures that needed love in some other thread and I cant remember where

 

Also, will get back to processing this list later this week, have a pile of uni work and such to sort out.

[Fidcal]

Might be this: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11058-things-that-could-be-improved/page__view__findpost__p__223835

[Aprilsister]

There are internal threads for models and textures with issues, but there is also a thread by serpentine: Texture's that need love. I agree we should make a sticky thread for stuff like that.

 

Thanks, STifU.

 

This thread should be sticked.

 

[i30817]

Did you already fix those two i reported?

 

http://modetwo.net/d...03/page__st__25

 

"The furniture texture above is

"models/darkmod/furniture/seating/bech_set01_flat. lwo"

 

(dunno why the forum software is appending a space after the dot. I didn't put it there.

 

(in blue letters bellow there is) desk1 "

 

and

 

"The wood stack above texture is:

textures/darkmod/nature/wood/firewood_stack

 

And it is the ambient shader. Any setting but normal makes it look like that. "

 

There was someone also mentioning the bottles and jam flasks (really, thief EP ones look better than those)

Edited January 15, 2011 by i30817

[Serpentine]

@i30817 : I'll have a look/fix now

(I do remember the initial report, but thought they were fm-specific)

 

@Aprilsister

From the screenshot it just looks like some residual artifact from a normalmap bake, I'll take a look.

[Serpentine]

@Aprilsister

 

The problem is... well, its the model's UV mapping, but it's a bit stranger than that. The model uses the same texture for the top of the books (i.e that area)... as the wood. So I'mma just take a long term note of that.

[Tels]

carpet/runners/geometric02_red_end doesn't match up to to carpet/runners/geometric02_red - even after fiddling a considerable time in DR (and using the smallest grid) you can still see the gap in game:

 

[Sotha]

carpet/runners/geometric02_red_end doesn't match up to to carpet/runners/geometric02_red - even after fiddling a considerable time in DR (and using the smallest grid) you can still see the gap in game:

 

 

Uh oh.. Careful with changing that texture. I've used those runner carpet textures in many my missions, like Knightons. In those, I feel the texture fit quite well in the end-mid part of the carpet, I was pleased with the appearance of my carpets.

 

Any texture alignment alteration will break those maps...

[Tels]

Uh oh.. Careful with changing that texture. I've used those runner carpet textures in many my missions, like Knightons. In those, I feel the texture fit quite well in the end-mid part of the carpet, I was pleased with the appearance of my carpets.

 

Any texture alignment alteration will break those maps...

 

Erm, yeah, but how on earth did you get them to align in the first place? I cannot do it without visible gaps/color changes or mis-aligned ornaments...

[Arcturus]

Run, I think it was test/lace.map. There should be both my carpets. I think you have to flip the texture on one end.

[Tels]

Run, I think it was test/lace.map. There should be both my carpets. I think you have to flip the texture on one end.

 

Ah, thank you! The problem was/is that the end-pieces use a differently-colored ornament in their center and I wanted them to be all the same color, so I used a shorter endpiece and cut it off in the middle.

 

Maybe the txeture can be adjusted so that if you cut-off that square ornament, they still align? I don't think such a change would impact existing maps, as the alignment doesn't work now, so nobody could have used it and even if they did, it will be better afterwards. (See my screenshot)

[Sotha]

Erm, yeah, but how on earth did you get them to align in the first place? I cannot do it without visible gaps/color changes or mis-aligned ornaments...

 

Like this:

apply texture on the surface, trial and error with the natural alignment selection until the carpet fits on my mid-part surface on the short end. Place longer-than-necessary end part and place it next to the mid-part. Apply the end-part texture there. Do the same short end alignment there. Move the texture until the mid-end parts fit perfectly texture wise. Use the clipper to cut out the non-needed extra part of the end-part.

 

Once you have created one carpet, you can clone it around. Maybe a prefab should be made for easy-instant-carpets?

 

Maybe the txeture can be adjusted so that if you cut-off that square ornament, they still align? I don't think such a change would impact existing maps, as the alignment doesn't work now, so nobody could have used it and even if they did, it will be better afterwards. (See my screenshot)

 

If any alterations will be made, it must be checked that it does not impact existing maps. I will not go and start realigning my carpets in my old missions.

[Fidcal]

Many of the editor images for the water textures look like they were just placeholders, eg, glass, and don't really convey anything of what the water will look like. I wonder if a screenshot of the actual water in-game might be used to produce some better editor images?

[ungoliant]

textures/darkmod/wood/panels/molding_grey needs help. i love pattern of the diffuse, it makes for a most excellent theatre balcony, but the quality and especially the normalmap leaves... something to be desired.

 

edit: woops, didn't check the "Fixed" list. nice work pre-emptively solving my problems!

Edited February 21, 2011 by ungoliant

[Serpentine]

Heh, fixed up a bunch more in the mean time - The grey one was quite nice to do freehand... because thats what happens when you're messing around at 4:30am waiting for compiles to finish :/

 

Glamour Shot:

 

 

 

I'm coming for you next, wallpaper! (and the leaf trim, I'm still not happy with him )

[ungoliant]

now thats what I'm talkin' bout! where is the public access repository of these wonderful treasures??!

[Serpentine]

They're in 1.04 - Timeline is : Time for bedddd

[Fidcal]

Just noticed the normal on the rim of this cart's wheel is inverted, recessed like a modern bicycle or car - to have a pneumatic tyre fitted. These old carts were just wood. Some might have a metal band round the rim but it would be flat.