PSA: Modelers Please Read!

[rbray89]

Normal mapped texture names need to end in _NRM or be marked in an MBM as a normal map to be handled the best they can be by KSP.

If they don't end in _NRM.tga/png the unconverted normalmap is left in memory! Many mods can save several MB just by marking them properly as normal maps.

My active memory reduction mod ALSO uses this convention to help detect normal maps, and there are several mods that I found that are not doing this:

B9_Aerospace has two offenders

Squad has a couple mis-marked mbm files

LLL needs to rename a couple

FASA has several offenders

NovaPunch seems to have no normal maps named properly.

And So, So many more on these forums.

If you are working on parts, please keep this in mind!

[DMagic]

Thanks for that, I was just about to start adding normals to my textures.

Do any of the other formats benefit from specific naming conventions? I have noticed that a lot of textures end in _DIFF, or _EMIT.

[rbray89]

Thanks for that, I was just about to start adding normals to my textures.

Do any of the other formats benefit from specific naming conventions? I have noticed that a lot of textures end in _DIFF, or _EMIT.

Not that I've noticed. Looks like squad only differentiates between normal and non-normal.

[NathanKell]

Mu just confirmed this in #kspmodders (before I was up; thank goodness I leave the window open).

[Tiberion]

Oh great. Renaming 300 files (Tiberdyne too!) reassigning all the normal maps and re-exporting them from Unity was definitely on my list of Things I Want To Do.

Sure would be nice if part tools renamed them properly.

[NathanKell]

I think that's in the coming parttools, but I'm not 100% sure. Mu said .23 parttools is coming, at least.

[rbray89]

Oh great. Renaming 300 files (Tiberdyne too!) reassigning all the normal maps and re-exporting them from Unity was definitely on my list of Things I Want To Do.

Sure would be nice if part tools renamed them properly.

Yeah, I've been thinking of creating a unity script for this purpose. I delved into the partTools script to learn how it works. I'm fairly confident I could create a mass re-namer.

[SasquatchM]

That is a truly unfortunate number of files to rename. Thanks for the info though.

[frizzank]

I just noticed it appended my exported normal maps with _NRM. So just re-exporting them with the latest part tools seems to do the trick...

[Lt Vax]

Just to be clear, I use CrazyBump to get my Normal and it saves it like this after Unity export, Storage-Container-01_NRM.mbm Been looking at Texturing Format Information and just trying to wrap my head around it.

[NathanKell]

It's best to use DDS now. Let your exporter vertical-flip the texture. For color maps, DXT1 if there's 3 channels, DXT5 if there's 4. For normal maps, DXT5nm (if your exporter does not support DXT5nm, copy the red channel to alpha, and copy the green channel to red and to blue).

[Lt Vax]

Thanks for the quick reply, but when I said 'trying to wrap my head around it' yeah, you just broke it......

I'm still playing 0.9 for now (I'll update when I'm ready!) Will be doing my mod pack for KSP 0.9 onward (maybe 0.25) just in case there are a few others who still enjoy older versions.

Looking into it and I can save my bump as DDS but what about the normal or dose that get changed with partTools when exporting from Unity?

Crazybump Save Settings

Also what do you mean by color maps.

[Vorg]

I'm playing around with Gimp and when exporting a texture using BC1/DXT1, there is an option for Mimmaps to ether have none or generate one. I've been going with none which seems to work. Should I have it generate it?

[NathanKell]

Generate mipmaps unless you expect to only see the texture from one distance (i.e. a GUI item).

[Vorg]

Thanks.

I have another question about bump/normal maps. Time was, bump maps where used to add detail to a model at render time that wasn't in the poly's. Now everyone is using these normals maps. When I see one with an image viewer, I wonder how it can hold depth info when it looks more like just a render at a fixed angle/lighting. Now reading more about them, it sounds like they are in fact just fakes adding edge preshading without really adding the depth texture. Is that true? Are true bump maps no longer used now that video cards have so much more power to make use of them?

[NathanKell]

Bump maps are one-dimensional normal maps, essentially; instead of storing the normal at a given point you store displacement...but if it's a bump map (i.e. done with lighting) not a displacement map, no geometry changes inolved, that value is only used to compute the normal anyway, so you might as well save the GPU the caclulations and get better detail by just using a normal map.

[Vorg]

I thought bump maps where displacement maps. The whiter the pixel at a point, the more it is pushed out and the darker, the more it is recessed, like a terrain elevation mapped to the model.

[NecroBones]

I thought bump maps where displacement maps. The whiter the pixel at a point, the more it is pushed out and the darker, the more it is recessed, like a terrain elevation mapped to the model.

It's pure trickery. It just creates the illusion of being a displacement by adjusting the normals. There is such a thing as a displacement map, but that's not what this is.

[Vorg]

Ok, so the newest smallest stock fins have rivets along the base and when you look edge wise, they are raise. I figured they were bumped in given how small they are. Are they modeled in with poly's?

[NecroBones]

Ok, so the newest smallest stock fins have rivets along the base and when you look edge wise, they are raise. I figured they were bumped in given how small they are. Are they modeled in with poly's?

If they're actually sticking out, then yes.