Could you perhaps upload a before/after pick to make it easily discernible what the changes look like? I like the textures, but it all looks a bit too jagged for my taste still.
Thanks. I'd love to learn how to parallax, but can't find any solid tutorials on how to do it. I think I know how to add it to meshes, but I don't know how the map is made. I just know it is a _p file added to line 4 of the texture paths. Something I would consider though. This would change quite a few nif files though.
Looks interesting. I will try it out to see as this is good having different texture for towers as the bricks look different to landscape and in real life the bricks for a fortified area would have rocks and bricks from a different area. Cool. Please do 4k. Maybe parallax??????
I will most likely do 4k with it soon. I usually do 4k and 2k for my texture mods. I had placed it in my game and liked the result, so I made a mod for it. So probably soon! Not really sure how to do parallax though! :O Something I will look into.
I have tested and it is good. Not bad at all. Do not get me wrong I am not going to keep using it and I am sorry but if I was new to modding then this would be a very good mod indeed. Keep at it and keep refining it and making new textures. Do not give up. I have still endorsed as it is good as I have already stated and some people would probably keep it.
Just checked your mod lists, Damn mate how have I not come across your mods before. I like the pots and pans and clothes iron LOL. Looks really good. Kudos to you for that amount of re texture mods. Keep on going and adding to that list.
This is clearly the better looking of the two in my opinion as well, but both mods have in common that their normal maps don't really work. In the other mod, the normals are simply wrong, but this mod barely has any, resulting in a very flat looking surface without the depth the normal map is supposed to provide. Unfortunately, many tutorials don't really teach the most important thing, that you don't just generate normal maps from diffuse maps. The best one I could find is this: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40801?
He uses Photoshop and CrazyBump, but it's the same for any combination of programs: You need to make a grayscale heightmap for the original texture that clearly shows which parts are outward "bumps" and which ones are inward "dents". The more "bumpy" something is supposed to be (like the individual stones in this wall texture), the brighter it has to be, and vice versa. If you don't have Photoshop and/or CrazyBump, there are a lot of free alternatives, for example GIMP, which comes with its own normal map plugin, though it lacks options to refine the result. A good program that's easy to use is NormalmapGenerator.
There is also one important thing the tutorial doesn't tell you: Normal maps are different in DirectX and in OpenGL. The green channel, which stands for the y normals, is inverted. Here you can see the difference in a "bump" for both:
Skyrim uses DirectX, so left is the correct format. In my opinion, it's best to remember that on bumps, the lower left side must be green. Look at normal maps from the game itself, and you will notice this. The NormalmapGenerator program I linked to does this correctly by default. If for some reason your normal map looks like the example on the right, you can just invert the green channel to fix it.
I hope this was useful and will help you to make better normal maps in the future.
@Pherim thanks for the tips! I don't have advanced normal map knowledge, so I will look into using this method. i appreciate it. And ya, was kind of blown away somebody did towers right after me. But at least now there are more options!
@Pherim I didn't do it complete justice, but hopefully there is a slight difference. Looking at the normal map itself compared to my old one is a big change, but It's deff not perfect. xD Seems like Crazy Bump does a lot of work for you.
I use Normal Map shadows in game its just a bit of lighting trickery (height map not not required) pixels facing away from the light are darker so dependent just the angles of light, I can see a nice improvement. in shadow : )
As I wrote, you can't just take the diffuse map and make a good normal map out of it. No matter what program, you use, it has no way of knowing which parts are supposed to be extruded and which are not. To get a good, usable normal map you absolutely must make a height map first, and that can only be done manually. The new normal maps you uploaded are definitely a bit better, but only in the small details, like the rough surface of the stones, but not the big, important elements, in this case, the stones themselves.
See the animated gif on the tutorial's Nexus page to see the difference, what a normal map for a stone wall should look like. The tutorial itself shows how to make the height map. If you don't have Photoshop, other programs will also work, but you might have to figure out the steps yourself. Another reason to make a good height map first is that it can later be used for parallax mapping, as a parallax map basically is a height map.
But don't worry if it doesn't work on the first try, practice makes perfect. In time, with more experience, you'll be able to spot incorrect or non-functional normal maps just from screenshots.
Ya, I didn't go that far with it, but I'm going to educate myself more for future releases and work harder on the maps. Then who knows, I may update a lot of my older files and see how they turn out. Appreciate all the help.
Cheers Haladoon! These look nice and I will try them in my game. I really like many of your earlier texture releases, of which the steel armour retexture is one of my very favorites!
Can I ask you what other stone masonry textures you install in your game for forts and stuff? Really just out of interest, what "the artist's choice" is. In any case thank you and happy holidays!
Thanks for supporting my stuff! Been gone for awhile haha. TBH, I have no clue. I've downloaded many texture mod packs, even from oldrim and when I see things I don't exactly like, I try to make a texture. There are just so many packs out there now and sometimes I don't know what it covers. Happy Holidays to you as well! :P
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I like the textures, but it all looks a bit too jagged for my taste still.
you: corporate needs you to find the difference
me: they are the same picture
He uses Photoshop and CrazyBump, but it's the same for any combination of programs: You need to make a grayscale heightmap for the original texture that clearly shows which parts are outward "bumps" and which ones are inward "dents". The more "bumpy" something is supposed to be (like the individual stones in this wall texture), the brighter it has to be, and vice versa. If you don't have Photoshop and/or CrazyBump, there are a lot of free alternatives, for example GIMP, which comes with its own normal map plugin, though it lacks options to refine the result. A good program that's easy to use is NormalmapGenerator.
There is also one important thing the tutorial doesn't tell you: Normal maps are different in DirectX and in OpenGL. The green channel, which stands for the y normals, is inverted. Here you can see the difference in a "bump" for both:
Skyrim uses DirectX, so left is the correct format. In my opinion, it's best to remember that on bumps, the lower left side must be green. Look at normal maps from the game itself, and you will notice this. The NormalmapGenerator program I linked to does this correctly by default. If for some reason your normal map looks like the example on the right, you can just invert the green channel to fix it.
I hope this was useful and will help you to make better normal maps in the future.
Thx looks so nice in game.
See the animated gif on the tutorial's Nexus page to see the difference, what a normal map for a stone wall should look like. The tutorial itself shows how to make the height map. If you don't have Photoshop, other programs will also work, but you might have to figure out the steps yourself. Another reason to make a good height map first is that it can later be used for parallax mapping, as a parallax map basically is a height map.
But don't worry if it doesn't work on the first try, practice makes perfect. In time, with more experience, you'll be able to spot incorrect or non-functional normal maps just from screenshots.
Can I ask you what other stone masonry textures you install in your game for forts and stuff? Really just out of interest, what "the artist's choice" is. In any case thank you and happy holidays!
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