BumpMap

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

So I've heard the is some advanced stuff, But i'd like to know how to apply them to a model. Does anyone know how you do it?

[R234]

Here's a good read: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Bump_map

Personally I create bump map textures with VTFEdit. Just feed it a heightmap (an image where the brighter the pixels are, the "higher" it is, e.g. someone's belly button would manifest as a darker spot on the heightmap) and check the generate bumpmap option.

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

Thank you very much, But i'm still having trouble on how to actually add it to the texture, or however it works. I'm not sure how you edit them in VTFEdit, which is what I also use.

[R234]

Mkay, here's an example. This is one of my next movie's antagonist's materials' base texture and bump map side by side: http://imgur.com/a/0VVjN

I don't have the image I used as the heightmap anymore, but it's pretty similar to the base texture. The main differences are it didn't have baked AO yet (the belt's shadow around the pants' waisband for example), and the Midnight Riders logo wasn't on the shirt.

You can basically take the base texture and modify it a bit. Make it greyscale. remove whatever doesn't have any actual physical shape (text and logos on shirts), and just generally make crevices darker and bumps brighter. Make buttons a white circle, y'know, stuff like that. Then, save that image, preferably in a lossless format like PNG, and import it in VTFEdit. In the general tab, check Generate Normal Map. Save the results as a VTF.

Technically, all you have to do now is place that new VTF in SFM's materials folder, preferably next to the material and base texture it'll be used in cunjunction with, edit the VMT to use the texture as a bump map, and voilà: http://imgur.com/a/HRiRD

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

I've got everything you said down, But how do I edit the VMT?

[R234]

Notepad or Notepad++ should do fine. VMTs are just plain text code files.

Valve developer wiki's page on bumpmap implementation: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$bumpmap

(seriously, that site's like a bible for us Source modders :P )

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

So I'm positive that the text code's aren't supposed to be:

VTF   P  €
dG?=Z?dG?  @ 

xÆÖµþûëßxÆÖµÿùëÝxÆÖµÿoëwxÆÖµ¿ïë÷XÆÖµßëêŸXÆÖµ}iê¿7¾ÖµêË£îxÆÖµõïû÷xÆÖµßïû_7¾ÖµºÊãë7¾Öµê£Ëë7¾÷½ö¢Ë÷xÆÖµßëûþXÆöµÝKyXÆÖµw«iíxÆÖµ÷ëï¿ÿÿ ƾÿÿÿÿÿÿ ƾÿÿÿÿÿÿ ƾÿÿÿÿÿÿ 8ƾþ»W»ÿÿ 8ƾ¿þÕïÿÿ,

stuff like that. I tried to open it with notepad and that didn't seem to work, I'm also sorry this is dragging on for so long. :L

[R234]

Sems to me like you tried to open a VTF instead of a VMT.

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

I Don't get the option of exporting it as a VMT, I read it wrong earlier.

[R234]

The image you export as a VTF, VTFs are textures, or image files. VMTs are materials, or code files. Which are you trying to edit here, the texture or the material?

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

If the material is the bumpmap, that's what i'm trying to do.

[R234]

A material (VMT) cannot be a bumpmap, bumpmaps are textures (VTF). The material is what tells the model which textures to use, and how. Once you have the bumpmap texture created, you add a call for it in the material's code.

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

Alright, then i'm up to date on everything except how to actually open the texture with notepad, Because I already have the texture created.

[R234]

You can't open a texture with notepad, that's for materials. Editing textures has to be done in an image editor, such as GIMP or Photoshop. Either get a VTF plugin for said program, or use VTFEdit to convert the images into a format that they can load, and then back into VTFs afterwards. I prefer the former personally, it's much more straightforward. I'll be damned if I can remember where I got my GIMP VTF plugin though, that was years ago...

[Jay T. Dawgzone]

I Don't have GIMP yet, so i'm going to see if I can get my hands on it real quickly.