New Stone Textures

[Norsu]

I made some stone textures for all mappers out there.

TTLG forum thread (these are indexed and resized for Thief 2)

 

I also made hires version (just the texture) of granit1.pcx in tga format.

 

>>Download granit1.tga<<

 

Feel free to give feedback .

[SneaksieDave]

Quite attractive. If they're of similar quality, tile-able, and (hopefully, but not required) have normalmaps, they could be put to good use here.

[Gildoran]

First let me say that those are beautiful textures!

 

Unfortunately, I don't think we can use them for TDM as-is: The images are clearly lit from above and have shadows in them. We need diffusemaps that aren't lit from any one direction, so that the shadows can be generated by normalmaps, allowing the texture to be lit from any angle.

 

If you can make textures that fulfill the requirements of diffusemaps, we'd love to use them!

[Norsu]

Thanks for comments. I can try to make some samples without shadows, unfortunately it's very sunny here almost every day but I'll figure out something .

[New Horizon]

Hi Norsu, glad to see you drop by. I'll setup this thread in the application forum.

[SneaksieDave]

You probably already know, but just in case: cloudy overcast days are perfect for bright, non-shadowed snapshots.

[Norsu]

You probably already know, but just in case: cloudy overcast days are perfect for bright, non-shadowed snapshots.

 

True, that's something I noticed while taking photos for FDFMOD textures .

 

I tried to make neutral version of my hires granit1.tga, you can download it here. The original granit1.tga shows the proper style for normal, diffuse etc. maps.

[ascottk]

First let me say that those are beautiful textures!

 

Unfortunately, I don't think we can use them for TDM as-is: The images are clearly lit from above and have shadows in them. We need diffusemaps that aren't lit from any one direction, so that the shadows can be generated by normalmaps, allowing the texture to be lit from any angle.

 

If you can make textures that fulfill the requirements of diffusemaps, we'd love to use them!

 

The shadows could be an easy fix. Copy the diffuse layer, invert the copy, then overlay the copy on the original. Then adjust the layer opacity, add a mask to the copy & get rid of anything that's totally cancelling out the details. etc.

[ascottk]

Just a quick proof of concept:

 

original

 

I applied what I just posted:

[Norsu]

I made some tests with quick 5 minute normal and diffuse maps in Doom 3 Hell level. Here's a screenshot. My first ever normal and diffuse maps so they look quite flat .

[Gildoran]

Both Norsu's and your new diffusemaps are much better than the original with regards to lighting, but it still clearly has signs of being lit from a specific direction... (try looking at it rotated 90 degrees)

[ascottk]

Both Norsu's and your new diffusemaps are much better than the original with regards to lighting, but it still clearly has signs of being lit from a specific direction... (try looking at it rotated 90 degrees)

 

I did that in roughly two minutes but I was trying to show it is possible to fix the shadows.

[SneaksieDave]

I made some tests with quick 5 minute normal and diffuse maps in Doom 3 Hell level. Here's a screenshot. My first ever normal and diffuse maps so they look quite flat .

Looks pretty damn good to me.

 

ascottk, we should get that tip (and any established little formulas like that) documented for sure! I'm dying to know more stuff like that.

[Gildoran]

Yeah, that is a good method... I don't mean to sound down on anybody.

[ascottk]

I used the GIMP for all of my texturing. Here's a quick & dirty tutorial for getting rid of shadows:

1. Copy the diffuse layer
   
2. invert the colors on the copy
   
3. overlay the copy on the original (experiment using overlay, multiply, grain merge, etc.)
   
4. adjust the layer opacity on the copied layer so it nearly cancels out the original
   
5. add a mask to the copy & get rid of anything that's totally cancelling out the details (the mask is white=opaque, black=transparent. use the airbrush with black or dark grey)
   
6. merge the two layers
   
7. adjust the gamma levels on the final image
   

Here's the best tutorial for tileable textures. I use this technique all of the time (the first texture on this thread looks like a mirror image of itself. It's obvious when you do the offset).

 

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Tileable_Textures/

[SneaksieDave]

Mind if I/you echo this in Documentation? Useful stuff indeed.

[Norsu]

Here's another screenshot showing the texture after few tweaks. Normal maps are still quite flat, any hints how to make them better without making 3d model of the texture itself?

[SneaksieDave]

Yep, you can use burn/dodge or brightness/contrast or levels/curves etc., to raise (lighten) certain parts and lower (darken) others. With the right gradation tricks it works great. For example, if you wanted to recede the mortar, you could select it all and reduce the contrast and darken it heavily in the normalmap source image (and/or do the same for the blocks, but lighten instead). Just one of many things to try.

[Norsu]

I made another texture, this time a mixture of granit stones, concrete and sand.

 

Screenshot

 

Download here (rar includes the texture + normal, height and specular maps)

 

Texture isn't tiled perfectly yet.

[New Horizon]

I made another texture, this time a mixture of granit stones, concrete and sand.

 

Screenshot

 

Download here (rar includes the texture + normal, height and specular maps)

 

Texture isn't tiled perfectly yet.

 

Looking very nice.

[Norsu]

I finally got that normal map look good.

 

Screenshot

 

I'm probably going to Lahti this weekend so expect another update on Monday . I will make a small bunch of sample textures now that I got hang of these special effect maps.

[New Horizon]

Wow, yeah...that's looking really great. I think it's safe to say that we can promote you to the next level and make you a contributor...what do the rest of you say?

[Gildoran]

Certainly fine by me.

[Dram]

Pretty fine textures, has my vote

[Norsu]

I updated the granitsand1 texture, you can download it here. This should be pretty much finished texture but there's always room for improvement. So try it and give some feedback .

 

If you still have the old height map (granitsand1_h.tga) from my earlier rar you can delete it as it's now useless.