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Texture Depth w/o Parallax

1 by Hydra
Is there any way at all to do this without coding in parallax? It just seems that using a normal map isn't enough for some of the textures I want to do. I've got my fingers crossed that I just missed something. I'm realy wanting to get some detail in the maps that's at least close to Doom3 :( But I'm way too rusty on my C/C++ to code it in.
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2 by BaRRaKID
Normal maps usually work, i don't know what method you'r using, but with the nvidia normal map plugin you have the step field (i think that's the name) wich can make a texture look deeper. Also instead of just running the filter over your color map, turn it into a b&w map, that way you can manipulate how deep everything is going to be (black is deep, white is top) making virtually possible to give any depth you want to the textures.
I've no sign

3 by Hydra
Yes I know how the nVidia thing works and all, in fact, I paint a heightmap first and use that to create the normal map. I'm still not getting the same results though for some reason. I wanted a concrete texture w/ holes in it but the holes only end up maybe a half-inch deep. And the higher the setting it just makes the edge of the holes angled and smoother. Also the heightmap I used was pretty much solid white w/ black circles for the holes.
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4 by BaRRaKID
But if you encrease the step, then the difference between the top and the bottom (white and black) will be bigger. You can also change the minimum value(sorry can't remember the correct name) to a lower value. If that doesn't work try to make the shadows inside the hole wider so that the center of the hole looks smaller, and do to that deeper.
I've no sign

5 by Hydra
So would I put a positive or negative number in for the "min Z" if I'm to try this out? I also did change the scale, and it dosen't seem to be doing that much.

Is there a clarification somewhere of what the number actualy does? like 1 = 1 inch or 1=1mm, pixel, etc.? That'd be a great help alone because I can't find any useful documentation to go with the plugin realy and I've been playing around with it for months.

[edit]
So far, the only way I've been able to get it to look right (when lit from an extreme angle) is to just paint the base texture w/ the holes as black spots, even when setting the scale of the normal map to 50 and the min Z to -20 or something around there. That gets it looking right but it wouldn't look the same if lit from head on. I'm guessing I should just suck it up and move on.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k214/ ... ng0000.jpg

Oh, and I was poking around, I just realized that the Doom3 textures are very .... small! I'm just surprised now at how much detail they got with such tiny textures. Some of them only being 64x64 and 128x128. And here I am making textures 1024 and 512. I think I'll play with smaller ones sometime to see how bad they look when re-sized in hammer.
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9 by Haxel
Well at 93fps on a geforce 6800, at 1024x resolution, it's gotta be eating away at soemthing.
But some of that stuff is amazing to look at, and its all done with images, you don't even have to open up a modelling package.

10 by Hydra
Well no not like that actualy. That IS parallax mapping and I don't want to have to go into that. Actualy, I've been thinking it's probably just my lighting that's killing the look I want. I only want a little bit more depth. Parallax seems to be a little too far, although I'd love to have it as a standard that way I wouldn't need to install and run a MOD for it. I've got it downloaded in case I do anyway. I just want to know if there's a method to normal mapping that could add a little extra depth. I did realize that using the "scale" variable in nVidia's tool that it does enhance it but it tends to ruin the illusion sometimes.


I was playing around w/ lights and was actualy wondering what the overall effect is when you set quadratic to 0 and linear to 1 or set them both to one? I don't have a map w/ enough detail to see the difference since I've been working on learning to do texturing lately.

I've pretty much been thinking along the lines that one of the main reasons D3 looks so good is because of how they light everything, and I guess I need to practice and learn a technique there till I can get something that looks good. Time to put down 3DS and Photoshop and start using Hammer. I just wish I was an architect. I can't design buildings for squat.
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