aciddog.co.uk

I've been trying to figure out how to make *decent* bump maps for rfactor using BTB. I've been generally pretty unimpressed with the bump-mapping I've seen in rf maps generally. Some of the cars do better but it's the exception rather than the norm. CORR has some nice bump mapping on the tyres but most of the levels seem to be sadly lacking , or it's so subtle you don't see it.

So basically I needed to know whether it was possible to make convincing/dramatic textures using the software workflow I've got (zmodeler>xpacker>btb>rf) or whether i was missing a tool for part of the process.

The main problem I saw with bump maps was actually making them. They need to use special colours and I somehow missed that bit of 3d development. Whenever I've encountered them in the past they've generally been been greyscale images.

Well since it's getting to the point where DR2 is going to need some decent textures, and I'm just putting the "canyon services" xpack together i figured now would be the time to figure this bump mapping thing out.

As it turns out my software workflow DOES support creating nice bumpmaps, but you need to create specular maps too to get the effect I was actually after. That seems to be what seals the deal and makes the bump-maps convincing.

What helped massively though was this tool "CrazyBump" available from http://www.crazybump.com/

It lets you import a photo and it creates bump/normal, displacement, specular textures among others. There's plenty of settigns to fiddle with and really looks like a superb bit of software. It outputs all the different layers, specular, displacement etc not just the normals. You can then just use whatever your package supports.

I'm still mucking around with how to get the best results in btb+rfactor with this but so this has been very helpful. The trial version seems fully functional so is well worth a go.

Photos below:
1) Shows the bump/normal map used
2) Specular map used
3) diffuse (colour) and bump map - looks ok but doesn't really *pop*
4+5) diffuse (colour), bump map and specular - now that's more what I was after.

Images: