#1) How do you make one? :confused:

#2) Can you use Jed's Allied Normal Maps with any reskin of the default Allied models, like Higgins' realistic 3rd Inf skins?

I don't know how to make one either, but yes you can use Jed's in conjunction with another skin. The normal map is on a seperate .vtf from the rest of the textures, so as long as you put the textures in without overwriting Jed's normals, it'll work.

Figured out Question #1, now I just have to know how to make the model use the normal map.

Do the normal maps with my skin not work? :(

Originally posted by Captain Higgins
Do the normal maps with my skin not work? :( No they do, but Jed's make them bumpier! :D

Figured out how to put your bump map in game, too and no dice. I edited the VMT file and I can't tell that the normal map even works. :confused:

For anyone who may know, I have v_hands.vmt edited to say:"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "models\weapons\v_models\hands\v_hand"
"$bumpmap" "models\weapons\v_models\hands\v_hand_normal"
}
I have my v_hand_normal.vtf in the same folder (materials\models\weapons\v_models\hands)

Well thanks Dill, I did that to the .vmt and it worked! Are you sure you're saving the .vtf as a normal map?

.VRT?

If you mean .vtf, yes I am saving the normal map file as a normal map .vtf.

Originally posted by Dillinger
.VRT?

If you mean .vtf, yes I am saving the normal map file as a normal map .vtf.

Whoops, yep typo.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is that your map is just too weak. Dunno though, I'm hardly an expert, I just know I got it working doing the same thing.

There is a much easy way to make normal maps.

Find VtFEdit by Jed and Nemesis.

Should be on the nems tools main webby. (He made GCF Scape among other programs)

You can make normal maps in seconds for any texture you import.

Just click the generate normal map (or something very similar) box when you get a dialog for the import.

noob question about this stuff:

what the heck is a "normal map" (i guess its an overlay over the models, but how do i know, if the skin i just installed, for example the awesome 3rd regiment skin, has those?)

thanks buddies and have a nice day

Tip.

- Make your normal maps about 50% the size of the main texture.

- Save them as RGB888 format.

- Use the NICE filtering option.

- Don't forget to set the normal map flag in the header.

You can set all this with VTFEdit when you import and save.

Originally posted by Com8.sax
noob question about this stuff:

what the heck is a "normal map" (i guess its an overlay over the models, but how do i know, if the skin i just installed, for example the awesome 3rd regiment skin, has those?)

thanks buddies and have a nice day

A normal map is basically just a better version of a bump map. It tells the engine which way each pixel in a texture points and it's heighth. Makes it look all bumpy and nice. You can tell if you've got one installed because the normal map requires two files, a modified .vmt file to tell the model where to get the map and the .vtf of the acctual map. Most maps I've seen, and the way I do them, just have a "_normal" added to the end of the normal texture name.