[Tutorial]Environment Mapping in Fallout 3

[Ghogiel]

So here is the fruit of my frustrations with textures and env map testing. :)

 

Judging by every single mod that I've seen that has attempted to make use of custom environment maps, No one has figured out how to make them or their correct usage. It's certianly not documented anyway...

 

Until now.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/articles/article.php?id=197

 

Chromed power armor anyone?

[Skree000]

good stuff Ghogiel. I havent had time lately to do any modding, and had my mind set on using env maps but never got time to play around with em.

 

Useful tut, nice :)

[Zenl]

Good to know. A kudo back to you :)

[SpeedyB64]

Have you got this put up on the GECK wiki?

You really should.

[ecksile]

Very nice.

[Ghogiel]

Have you got this put up on the GECK wiki?

You really should.

You know, I don't think it goes in tbh. Unless I'm missing another section on tutorials. The GECK wiki only hosts Geck tuts. and if you go further, it just redirects you to the tescs wiki for texturing and modelling tutorials. And there is no fallout section under the external modding tutorial sections, so I'm not about to start maintaining the wiki :)

 

also in those sections, most of those kind of suck. They'll get the job done. but many are old with outdated techniques, or worse, bad info. In a way, I'd like to keep my tuts in a separte place. iirc tutorials hosted in the wiki have no authors, and can be edited by anyone. which is great. But. I need to know who wrote the tutorial. I know loads of modders in this scene, old, new, prolific or super deadly ninja from behind the scenes. And the name on the tutorial adds weight to the information contained. You see a new tut by saidenstorm, and you just know its the real deal.

The hope is if I keep my tuts separate from that mess, then modders can find them, and know the info is good and trustworthy :P. I plan to do a couple more.

 

if someone can find a suitable place for it there, like maybe just the link. post back :unsure:

[Ghogiel]

I updated the tutorial a little to clairfy cube mapping and to give a visual reference to it.

 

I've learnt a bit more about making real cube mapping. it is not that straight forward as snagging a landscape pic. and cutting out a section thats 6x1. hehe. its actually 6 images, in a row the first 4 are a straight section of the landscape, they get displayed wrapped around the sides of the mesh, the last 2 images are sctually displayed on top and bottom of the mesh. Making proper cube maps will ensure that, land reflections will not appear on the top of the mesh, and sky reflections only on the top :)

 

awesome

[Skree000]

yeap for people who are having difficulty grasping it,

 

a cubemap is in essence, a cube object, textured from the inside only, which, when standing in the exact center of the cube, if you looked around, the walls, ceiling and floor would be painted just like a skyline vista, or some interesting scene, when in reality its just 6 planes textured specially to make it look like you are inside a big skybox :)

 

Cubemaps are usually interchangeable with the term Environment map, which isnt always composed of a cube per say.

Zonemaps are the advanced form of either, and consist of realtime cube/enviro maps which update in realtime, dependant on the location of the object in its surroundings. These forms of maps (AFAIK) are not available with our niftools and geck. (usually advanced game engines have em. For example the Everquest2 engine has them, as does the Evolution engine. I havent used UT3 in a while, but im quite sure such a thing is definitely possible using some clever material expressions in their complex mat language.

[Ghogiel]

Zonemaps sound like the shiz. never heard of them

 

While I'm digging the updated shader model for Fallout, the environmaps big let down is that the map doesn't update. So the effect while slick to look at on most things, something about seeing the sky reflecting off your helmet while indoors isn't quite right. humph.

[DELTA92]

I followed the tutorials yesterday without knowing how recent they are. I got some very good results, ignoring the fact that the environment map does not change depending on the region. I'm use to doing this on the Source engine where the environment map is actually dynamic, but o well. I think the both the scope lens and silver slide deagle came out very well, though it's hard to tell on the deagle from a static screenshot.

 

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff99/DELTA_011692/SCARAcog.jpg

 

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff99/DELTA_011692/Deagle.jpg