DeleD Community Edition

elementrix · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:43 am Post subject: normal mapping

i would really like to see normal mapping in deled because it's a very nice way to make a low polygon object look high poly.

and i think that in the future normal mapping will be used more and more.

i would really like this. how are you guy's thinking about this?

Paul-Jan · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject:

Normal mapping has been requested a few times already. We all agree it would be a cool(!) thing to have, but so far we are not convinced it is a "top priority" thing to have here and now (i.e. more important than other things on our list).

The following "reasons why" are only meant to provoke thought. Everyone who has an opinion on this, please speak up and convince us normal mapping is the First Thing That Needs To Be Done... Very Happy

1. To make normal maps, DeleD needs to be a high poly modeler first. This is something we are certainly steering towards in the long run, but isn't exactly an overnight change.

2. The use of normal maps is not overly important during the modeling process, it only serves to make the model look better in the final rendering application (i.e. game, engine, whatever).

3. The use of normal maps also implies that the model wasn't made in DeleD in the first place... so why not use that no doubt much more expensive modeler to do the rest of the work as well?

Nocturn · DeleD PRO user Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 635

Daaark · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject:

Most things in Deled aren't even high poly enough to get any benefit from normal mapping. You would use bump maps on the actual textures.

See: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html
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elementrix · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:24 pm Post subject:

you can also use normal maps on walls and then it looks like if the stones are really coming out the wall but it's still a 1 poly wall like this:

this would be great to make very detailed house's but they are only 200,300 poly's.

Daaark · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:58 pm Post subject:

Yeah that works. Just set it to another texture layer and then set it to inactive. In your code you will know that the inactive layers are for normal maps.
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Jeroen · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:31 pm Post subject:

Mr.Fletcher · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

I think somebody could write a tutorial for that. We should expand the tutorials section anyway.
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elementrix · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:08 pm Post subject:

afecelis · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject:

I thought normal mapping was a job of the engine you exported your deled map to. So, this would mean adding another render-shading mode for the views, right? (I mean to get a view with normal maps within deled).
Besides that, would the lightmapping be affected by these bump-maps?

Jeroen · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:44 pm Post subject:

Paul-Jan · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:50 pm Post subject:

Mr.Fletcher · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:57 pm Post subject:

Jeroen · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject:

That would be awesome. Very Happy

Daaark · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject: