[Tutorial] Video - Create Halo 3-like Normal Maps

[Reaper Man]

Pretty nice tutorial there, I'm assuming that the cliffs in HL2 were done similarly. No offence meant, but the cliffs in HL2 have a much rockier appearance than those your example map.

[Sakievich]

You can also convert b/w images that you import into .bitmap format into normal maps through tool and guerilla. You simply import the image file as you normally would, then open the .bitmap file and change some of the settings (see below) and then import the file again. This works in pretty much the same way as it does in HEK.

Format: 32-bit color
Usage: Height Map and check UNUSED
Processing: this is where the adjustment happens for personal preference, bump height is of particular importance.
WDP fields: these compression quality things can be tweaked.

[Patrickssj6]

My god, are you brain dead or some thing?

LMAO!

[phase]

Pretty nice tutorial there, I'm assuming that the cliffs in HL2 were done similarly. No offence meant, but the cliffs in HL2 have a much rockier appearance than those your example map.

Thats becuse of the way the map is formed the example map is sorta of a soft curved crator witch there isn't refrences of. hl2 used a huge amount of real life refrences for there scenery.

[Con]

Can someone explain something to me? If you wanted to create an non-repeating normal map for the cliffs of your map, wouldn't that require having a bitmap/several bitmaps for the entire of your cliffs (diffuse and normal)? With a rock it's no problem, but with cliffs it's another matter. The H3 ones are repeating. I think creating a lightmap baked on a higher-poly BSP would be the best solution rather than normal maps, because it doesn't need to use the same UV's as the diffuse map.

[Sakievich]

By the way, Zbrush 3 is out now (got my free upgrade!)and it has some interesting new features like tileable modeling on a surface that can then be exported as a normal map. It's called "wrap mode". It can then be exported as a bump/normal or whatever else you need it to be.

http://www.zbrush.info/wiki/index.ph...edImage_16.png

I hesitate on making one normal map for my entire map's cliffs since that would be a very very large file, I think it would generally (not always of course) be better to create normal maps that do not appear to repeat by not putting too much variation in the normal map and organizing the geometry so that the full length of the bitmap is never seen at one time.

[Con]

I hesitate on making one normal map for my entire map's cliffs since that would be a very very large file, I think it would generally (not always of course) be better to create normal maps that do not appear to repeat by not putting too much variation in the normal map and organizing the geometry so that the full length of the bitmap is never seen at one time.

Ah, thought so. Thanks

[ShadowCloud]

Well, mostly halo ce, halo 1 got old.

[bleach]

but not a lot of people play Halo CE currently, neither with H2V.

[Limited]

but not a lot of people play Halo CE currently, neither with H2V.

Thats because it hasnt been official released. Duh