Bob's Textureplasty Clinic

[Melan]

Springheel: used together, they are cohesive and amazing, but as I have discovered in FMs, including one of my own missions (Bad Debts), using one or two can really make them look out of place. In particular the red brick series, the flagstones and cobblestones and the weathered planks. But again, there are also amazing textures there I'd love to see, like the metal railings which could become decals or objects depending on preference).

[Bikerdude]

Well, I guess we all know what I'll be up to in the near future...

If you could make the normals for the additional textures (bar the ones Springs left out) that would be great.

[Hecateus]

Possible application for the old/new set of classic textures would be in a "dreamscape" situation...ie the player is transported to more or less the same place, but things look subtly strange.

[Springheel]

s I have discovered in FMs, including one of my own missions (Bad Debts), using one or two can really make them look out of place. In particular the red brick series, the flagstones and cobblestones and the weathered planks.

 

 

There are definitely some where I can see that--usually the ones where windows or trim have been added manually after the fact, and the metal with rivets is clearly hand-made and doesn't quite fit, unfortunately. The textures are also a little more colour saturated than most of our outdoor textures. But I'm surprised you mentioned the weathered wood one though...I can see the risk of it getting repetitive, but I actually quite liked it. Is it really that different than our weathered wood?

[Melan]

It is the strong bluish tint, I think. I experimented with it in my map, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

[Bob Necro]

Here's a pack with some of the newer textures.

http://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzHmWZvs_ns1VksyaXJLR2dLLVE/view?usp=sharing

 

FWIW, if you really want to add some of the textures to core resources, now that I've already done the heavy lifting with the normal maps, recoloring and desaturating the diffuses is an easy operation.

[Bikerdude]

ta.

[Bob Necro]

We now return you to our regular programming.

Batch XI: http://goo.gl/photos/Unsd3Gp7NRHZqPHA6

Contents:

• cobblestones_loose_ongrass in 200% resolution
• a more warped window as requested. Also various tweaked EP window speculars.
• wallpaper_flowers_01 - now without ropey jpeg artifacts!
• random normal maps with lighting direction turned the right way around, false depth from stains and shadows removed, missing real depth added, the usual.
• BONUS: My Bafford-style recolor of C-BEAM's blustn texture. Uses the same normal map as the original, natch. Includes optional specular map, also one-size-fits-both.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Bob Necro

[Melan]

Dat blustn variant! Do we have the original?

 

And thanks for the warped window! That looks just about perfect. There is so much good stuff, I will have to go back to my earlier missions and delete my old, shoddy versions of all these revised textures.

[Bob Necro]

Dat blustn variant! Do we have the original?

 

Yup, I supplied that one and the normal map in batch 7.

[Melan]

I completely missed it, even though it is one of my favourite textures!

[Bikerdude]

We now return you to our regular programming.

Batch XI: http://goo.gl/photos/Unsd3Gp7NRHZqPHA6

Will commit along with the last croatia batch.

 

[update]

Done. #14347

 

[Petike the Taffer]

It is the strong bluish tint, I think. I experimented with it in my map, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

Personally speaking, while I like the second texture as well, I think it should only be used for environments that have an appropriate context. The appearance of those boards makes it look like they've been in some outdoor environment for a long time, possibly near a humid location (e.g. a swamp, a wetland), and possibly as part of a ruined or slowly falling apart wooden building. I can imagine that texture quite well in some mission that's set at a lakeside house or cabin overrun by vegetation and various dirt sediments brought about by years of rainy and windy weather.

 

Here's a pack with some of the newer textures.

http://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzHmWZvs_ns1VksyaXJLR2dLLVE/view?usp=sharing

 

FWIW, if you really want to add some of the textures to core resources, now that I've already done the heavy lifting with the normal maps, recoloring and desaturating the diffuses is an easy operation.

 

Cool, just like your previous efforts.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Petike the Taffer

[Bob Necro]

I've always found this particular group of textures to be particularily under-resolutioned, so I got out the gluesticks and glitter and reimagined 'em:

http://goo.gl/photos/i7D7ZgYfEFJhbqtY8

[Bikerdude]

Thanks Bob, will get this added to SVN.

[Melan]

Noice! Shouldn't the normalmaps be deeper, though? They are very shallow, and a bit flat.

[Bikerdude]

Shouldn't the normalmaps be deeper, though? They are very shallow, and a bit flat.

@Bob, this is a common issue with a lot of your normals. Without sounding ungrateful, is it possible moving forward to make all your normals deeper..?

[Bob Necro]

I suppose, although at what level? Increase the contrast or make the beveling wider?

Edited October 31, 2015 by Bob Necro

[Melan]

In this case, the contrast (is that the depth of the normalmap, right?) would be the thing to change, and not radically (the original normal is kinda shallow as well). But if it is possible, raising the contrast on the brick foundations would be a big thing.

 

But in the case of a few other textures, the method you use is less rounded than optimal, like it was with the case of blocks_ochre_smooth or old_small_bricks_grey. In both cases, something in the way you generate the normals makes them sharper, but more flat.

 

 

Of course, it is argueable which is better on a case-by-case, texture-by-texture basis. Which is why we are discussing it.

[Bob Necro]

Oh yeah, those. The ochre normal map is actually a just a slightly tweaked version of the one cgtextures made themselves, and considering they were the ones who took the original photos, I'd wager they know best what the surface looked like in real life.

Of course, since the diffuse is exactly the same as the old one, just higher in resolution, it still fits snugly enough with the old rounded normal map so you can keep that one around for 2.04 instead, if you really want to.

As for the other one, based on what the bricks look like in the diffuse I personally can't interpret them being very rounded, but I can increase the contrast if it'd help.

 

For the record, I calibrate my normal maps based on a standard I've seen in most other games - a fair chunk of Dark Mod normal maps are rather extreme in the contrast department. But if you want me to hold myself to that standard instead, I guess I can play ball.

 

I'll monkey around some more with the framed plaster normal maps. But, fun fact: I basically left the brick foundations untouched after upsampling the originals. If you want me to make them even deeper than they were originally, I'll do so.

[Bikerdude]

• A fair chunk of Dark Mod normal maps are rather extreme in the contrast department. But if you want me to hold myself to that standard instead, I guess I can play ball.
• But, fun fact: I basically left the brick foundations untouched after upsampling the originals. If you want me to make them even deeper than they were originally, I'll do so.

• Its a free perf enhance in that we get 3D without having 3D etc,
• Yes please, the porblem is a lot of our textures/nromals are way to flat . They only show any kind of 3D when a light is close to the surface etc, where as in RL we would see far more detail. So the only way to get this without having lots of tessellation is extreme normals.

On a side note if I was able workout a easy to follow workflow, I would update ALL of our flat(non extreme) normals!

[Springheel]

But, fun fact: I basically left the brick foundations untouched after upsampling the originals. If you want me to make them even deeper than they were originally, I'll do so.

 

 

That brick texture is used elsewhere, so best to leave it alone so there isn't a clear difference between the two.

[Bob Necro]

Which one is it? I might as well "deepen" that one while I'm at it.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, found it meself. Here are the tweaked normal maps: http://goo.gl/photos/FjLc1dEphwoHvuz16

I've cranked up the contrast to the point that the edges of the straight planks are pure black and pure white in their respective color channels.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Bob Necro

[Springheel]

I believe it's textures/darkmod/stone/brick/rough_brick_grey

[Bob Necro]

Way ahead of ya, bruh. Check the post right above yours.

 

Part 12 of random tweaks: http://goo.gl/photos/e1uF6w66q64Bf9Ze6

Contains alternate versions of the normals Melan brought up and some miscellaneous stuff mainly focused on removing baked in lighting. The book rows also have extra specular maps included - don't forget to include them into the shader-thigywhathaveyou if you want the books to shine like the originals, except now in a dynamic fashion.