Normal Map for K1/2 help? Last Resort...

[JackInTheBox 38]

Can someone please explain to me what I'm doing wrong? I read up on threads, dealing with implementing normal maps to diffuse textures. Seemed straight-forward enough, but apparently I'm the stupidest person alive.

I can get the Normal to work fine, but only where the model already supports it.  Like Hutts, for KOTOR1, for instance.  Near as I can tell, I am screwing up model conversion.

 

As for altering files with MDLOps, or MDLEdit, i kept trying to enable the  tangentspace  1 line, any way, I read about. No luck.

 

Please?

[DarthParametric 3,783]

The meshes in a given model need the tangentspace flag, but the textures also need the appropriate TXI data. The diffuse needs:

bumpmaptexture abcdef

(replace with NM filename) and the normal map needs:

isbumpmap 1

Normal maps can only be a RGBA/DXT5 TPC.

[ebmar 893]

17 hours ago, JackInTheBox said:

...or MDLEdit, i kept trying to enable the  tangentspace  1 line, any way, I read about. No luck.

With this version of MDLedit you can straight ticking the bumpmap flag for the relevant texture via the program [which the official released version fails to do so], without having to convert the model to ASCII first. As for MDLOps I think it could have work as it should - though in practice I rarely use it.

Normal map wise - pretty much like DarthParametric explained earlier; though you may want to add the scaling for the normal map by having something like this -

isbumpmap 1
bumpmapscaling 1.0

You can have more details of it by visiting CarthOnasty's thread.

[JackInTheBox 38]

Thanks, for the responce. I've been tinkering with NORMAL maps, for the past few day, but i think i hit a road block. Everything works as it should, however the end result is not particularly impressive. The normal map .TPC introduces a substantial amount of aliasing to the model. Aliasing that is not a problem, when using Bump map TGA's, for instance.

 

I would assume, the problem lies with mipmaps, created by the program tga2tpc converter. The Aliasing is probably introduced, when the texture is downsampled for the mipmaps. Since, no such aliasing exist for the .tga files, i guess the game's engine just has a better algorithm for creating its own mip maps.

 

Any advice? Short of adding more blur to the original texture or forcing some kind of GPU antialiasing, im stumped on what to do.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

1 hour ago, JackInTheBox said:

the end result is not particularly impressive

Odyssey's normal map implementation is frankly not worth bothering with. You will never get the sort of results you'd see even in contemporary engines of the era, much less modern ones.

1 hour ago, JackInTheBox said:

I would assume, the problem lies with mipmaps, created by the program tga2tpc converter

Yes. It's a known issue, but the problem was never resolved before ndix UR, the tool's author, vanished off the face of the earth. As the engine will not accept normal maps in any other format, there's little you can do about it.

1 hour ago, JackInTheBox said:

im stumped on what to do

What is it exactly you are trying to do? Depending on what it is, you might be able to get the same (or better) results using actual geometry.

[JackInTheBox 38]

Just trying to add some depth, to some of the main charakters, npc's and armors. Now that upscaling textures is a possibility.

Mostly, i just got excited at the thought of such an old game, even supporting normal maps. The end result, is not too bad actually, as it adds some nice definition and shading. But, when viewing the model from far away, the aliasing is way too distracting. Almost, as if there are no mips.

 

Too bad, there is no other way to convert tga's to tpc's. Oh well, there's always bump maps, at least. Unless, that has some nasty surprises.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

You could try forcing mip 0 via the TXI semantic. Try one or both of:

mipmap 0
downsamplemax 0