random question

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PoophairJones
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Re: random question

Post by PoophairJones »

Well i think you need to add the real colors yourself in that case. The mask like colors should help to tell which color goes where on the texture at least.
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

D: Too much work then... it would be also hard to recreate the original colors...
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

Not sure if this has been asked already, but how can I solve when a png or tga texture with alpha channel shows white edges in XPS? >_>
"Some steps need to be taken alone. It's the only way to really figure out where you need to go and who you need to be."
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

Well okay I'm writing here again because a new problem appeared and I'm completely stuck.

I'm trying to convert a model from Dragon Age Inquisition, the issue is that the normal maps have something wrong and I can't figure out what, nor how to fix them. The original textures are in .dds format, but they are kinda weird and so I saved them in .tga. However, that doesn't seem to work at all because in XPS normal maps make the model completely black (hair and eyes are the only visible thing). It's not a lightmap issue, I checked and it all starts right when I apply the normal maps. Another weird thing is that I copied two of them from another folder to this new one and they perfectly work on the other model while here they appear black just like the others. Also, blender crashes if I try to reload the .ascii model.

Is there a way to fix this damn thing?
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Love2Raid
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Re: random question

Post by Love2Raid »

Do you have a sample of those normal maps (original and after you converted it to .tga)?

(Maybe the model appears black, because you forgot to change the texture extension from .dds to .tga in the .mesh.ascii file or something?)
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

No I tried with both .dds and .tga, it's always the same thing: black model in XPS, blender crash if I import it there.

Btw these are the two normals (.dds and .tga) for the hat http://www.mediafire.com/download/se05w ... normal.rar the issue appears with all the normals except the one for the hair and eyes.

Still, I don't understand why a texture that perfectly works on another model doesn't on this one :\
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Anx
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How to convert object-space normal maps to tangent-space

Post by Anx »

Runa wrote:No I tried with both .dds and .tga, it's always the same thing: black model in XPS, blender crash if I import it there.

Btw these are the two normals (.dds and .tga) for the hat http://www.mediafire.com/download/se05w ... normal.rar the issue appears with all the normals except the one for the hair and eyes.

Still, I don't understand why a texture that perfectly works on another model doesn't on this one :\
How to convert object-space normal maps to tangent-space
Hey,

This .dds is a "object-space normal map". XNALara required a "tangent-space normal map" with the swizzle set to X+ Y- Z+

You can recognize the "object-space" by the "Rainbow Colors".
"Tangent-space" normal maps are predominantly-blue (or green or red) colors.

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_map

I suggest using xNormal to convert it.
  1. Open xNormal, and click on Tools button on the right.
  2. Open up the tool in the top right that says "Object/Tangent space converter"
  3. Load your mesh and normal map and convert it.
Hope that helps

Unfortunately for artists, there are many different ways to calculate the tangent basis: 3ds Max, Maya, DirectX 9, NVMeshMender, Eric Lengyel, XNALara, XPS, a custom solution, etc. This means a normal map baked in one application probably won't shade correctly in another. Artists must do some testing with different baking tools to find which works best with their output. When the renderer (or game engine) renders your game model, the shader must use the same tangent basis as the normal map baker, otherwise you'll get incorrect lighting, especially across the seams between UV shells. If your model appears black, perhaps the Z-Swizzle-Coord Point to the wrong direction (Sign - mathematics)
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

:o holy cow, the things you learn everyday lol.

Thank you for this, I'll give it a try! However, the head normal texture was copied from another folder and left untouched... I don't get why it works in XPS on that other model and doesn't on this one...

EDIT: It's not working :\ gives me an error saying it cannot find a plugin.
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Runa
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Re: random question

Post by Runa »

Guys really, I don't know what is happening here. I am having the same issue with another model from Far Cry 4... normal maps originally in .dds format saved in tga... model completely black in XPS and blender crashes. At this point I think there might be a problem on my part, not sure if it depends on the Compressonator or my version of Photoshop CC. I changed computer recently and I never had this issue before...

I don't really know what to do, any suggestion? I cannot port those models if I can't fix the problem, which apparently happens now also with diffuse textures previously in .dds format (model looks okay with diffuses, but blender still crashes)...

EDIT: I finally managed to fix it. If someone of you should experience a similar issue at some point, I installed Gimp, loaded the normal maps and lightmaps there, then saved them overwriting the original ones. I don't understand want went wrong in the first place, but at least now everything works as it should.
"Some steps need to be taken alone. It's the only way to really figure out where you need to go and who you need to be."
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