Will UT2004 support normal mapping?

[Slyrr77]

I know it doesn't now, but will future patches allow UT2004 models to enjoy the new 'wave of the future' that is normal mapping? The effects of such in Doom3 and HL2 are very impressive, and I can only imagine how nice UT2004 models would look with them.

In the same vein, I have Max 4.2. But the tutorials for normal mapping I've seen all seem to focus on Max7. I can't really afford the $4000 price tag to get max7 <angry muttering>. Are there any plug-ins for Max4x that will allow us to try it out?

For that matter, I gather a normal map is just another form of texture. Are there techniques for photoshop and such that will let you take a skin texture and change it into a normal map? In other words, do you really need a 3D suite to do normal mapping?

Slyrr

 

[JohnnySix]

I think works similar to the way the 16-bit terrain textures work in UT2004, with different colour channels representing diferent rotations etc.

I guess you could spoof it, but it'd be pretty laborious by hand, unless you were doing really simple patterns/textures.

I'm still using MilkShape, so I've not dabbled, there is a time limited trail for 3ds max 7 though, if you want to at least give it a try.

 

[Radiosity]

Normal mapping is the process of taking a super high poly model (in the region of 2,000,000 polys for example) and applying it to a low poly (3000 - 7000) model to give it the appearance of being more detailed than it really is. Benefits include the obvious performance gains of low poly modelling, coupled with the visual gains of high poly models. Lighting and shadows also react realistically with the model. Doom 3 uses this technique, and frankly looks absolutely amazing. A visual example of normal mapping:

A cacodemon from Doom 3:

The Normal Map (known as RenderBump):

And Specular:

To answer the question though, no it won't be included in the current engine builds. The normal mapping systems would require some pretty huge amounts of updating of the engine to implement, and the editor would also have to be rewritten to include a renderbump feature to actually generate the normal maps for models. We'll just have to either wait for UnrealEngine 3, or do some modding with the Doom 3 engine while we wait (which is what I'm doing, the totally realtime lighting system combined with renderbump and a pretty easy scripting system have got me hooked hehe).

 

[Slyrr77]

But Max 4 - can it be done in Max4 the way it's outlined in the Max7 tutorials with some kind of plug-in?

 

[chip]

In other words, do you really need a 3D suite to do normal mapping?

normal (aka bump) mapping has been around for over a decade in render-to-file modeling & animation apps. it's a standard technique for creating visual surface detail without additional polygons, that has been adapted recently to real-time game engine rendering. in Radiosity's example, the bump map (normal map) has been generated from the data of a high-poly model, but that isn't the only method. many modeling apps can use virtually any rgb texture as a bump map, and some can use procedural textures (fully-defined by math and programming ratherthan an image file) as well.

i'd be really surprised if Max 4 doesn't do some form of bump map rendering, as it was a feature of its ultimate progenitor, Autodesk 3D Studio (this unearthly landscape's texture is entirely bump mapped -- Io. )

the methods of generating the bump map are evolving, though, so whether a bump map can be generated in Max 4 from a high-poly model per Rad's example is another question. if you want to experiment, you could always paint the bump map.

 

[empty_other]

Maybe bumpmaps does work in Unreal Engine 2x? When i surfed around on the Unreal Developer Network (UDN) UE2x pages, i found a link to a page for UnrealEngine and bumpmapping. But i needed to have a license account to access it.
Probably some engine coding to do it...