Normal Map Assistance

[LieutenantHawk]

I'm working on another armor retexture, but I've stumbled upon a bit of an issue. I need to make a normal map for the texture--yes, I have the NVIDIA plugin and it works just fine--but I don't know how to apply different types of lighting effects to different parts of the texture. The armor is plate and chainmail; the breastplate is painted over and there are various leather straps/belts. I want the metal parts to be nice and shiny, but the leather and painted segments to be matte. How exactly do I go about doing this?

[Werne]

You'll need a specular map, there you can adjust the shininess of certain parts of your model. If you want a part of the model to be shiny make that part of the specular map lighter, if you want another part to be matte make that part of the specular map darker.

[LieutenantHawk]

You'll need a specular map, there you can adjust the shininess of certain parts of your model. If you want a part of the model to be shiny make that part of the specular map lighter, if you want another part to be matte make that part of the specular map darker.

 

Okay then, how do I go about creating a specular map? I consulted the manuals for NVIDIA's texture tools and they don't help at all.

[Sunnie]

The specularity map is the alpha channel of the normal map.

[LieutenantHawk]

The specularity map is the alpha channel of the normal map.

 

Oh, okay. How do I apply it differently to different parts of the normal map then?

[Sunnie]

In the alpha map, just paint the parts you want shiny with a light color, and the parts you want flat with dark color, it uses a gray scale from black (completely flat) to white (completely shiny). make sure you save your normal map in DXT3 or 5 ARGB.

[d0kefish]

There's a couple of ways to make a specularmap.

 

On easy way is go top filters -> Stylize -> Find edges.

 

Invert everything and desaturate.

 

Desaturate diffusemap and overlay with a fitting setting then lower the oppacity.

 

Merge the two when u have a good match, then mess around abit with the colorlevels to get the best result. If you want to see what its supposed to look like just check a specular map for something allready in game.

 

Hope that helps, good luck!

[Perraine]

I found these videos helpful ... Just don't blame me for the accents! :whistling:

 

[LieutenantHawk]

I found these videos helpful ... Just don't blame me for the accents! :whistling:

 

 

Not really helpful, since they're all in Gimp and I'm using Photoshop. But thanks anyway! :)

[Werne]

The specularity map is the alpha channel of the normal map.

 

Can be done that way, but I prefer a separate map.

 

@LieutenantHawk Here's an example of maps for one of my weapons:

 

 

Diffuse Texture

 

Normal Map

 

Specular Map

 

 

 

As you can see, the specular map is black and white with non-reflective parts darkened (the wooden handle). Some create it from the Bump Map (the easiest way), some do it in the Normal map's alpha channel (the best way) but I do it from the diffuse (lazy way :tongue:) and I still get a decent result.