I've searched this website and google to no avail.
So, as far as I can see, textures are composed of an image - e.g. tiles, an Alpha Channel that defines how the light reflects of the edges of those tiles and another layer which seems to control how that texture overlays with other textures when blending them together with an airbrush-style tool.
I would guess that the Alpha Channel (which in the case of a grass texture for example, will be a muddle of red and orange pixels) is not drawn manually. I should hope that a texture can be modelled as a 3D image in relation to the shape of the pattern in the texture image in order to create an alpha channel automatically.
Is it possible to automatically create a working SC2 texture using Adesk MAYA? If not, is it possible using Photoshop or any other software? Does anyone know of a good tutorial for creating textures with Alpha channels and the other layer relating to blending specifically for StarCraft 2?
http://www.galaxywiki.net/index.php?title=Models there's a small amount of information there about textures. Basically, a texture in Starcraft II is an image, usually in dds format, but sometimes in tga format. The texture may be diffuse (the actual colour of the model) specular (how shiny the model is) emissive (used for glows) and normal (parallax occlusion in sc2's case. Normal maps add detail to the model that isn't actually polygon-modeled.).
The alpha channel defines which part of the image is seethrough. If you have a window, you want it to be mostly seethrough but you also want to have a but of dirt on it, perhaps, and a crack or a bullet hole. You use a diffuse map to colour in the dirt, then make the image more transparent, using photoshop/gimp/paintshop pro.
Where you talk about alpha mapping and a muddle of orange pixels above, you actually mean a normal map. Normally, normal maps are blue and purple-toned. However, as SCII uses parallax occlusion maps, you have to invert parts of your normal map to get it to work correctly, causing it to look orange to the human eye. 3D modeling programs usually have a normal map bake function that you use to create a normal map from a high-polygon model. Once you've done that, follow one of the several tutorials around for converting your normal map to a parallax occlusion map.
Jack, with regards to Parallax Mapping and starcraft 2, do you mean the alpha channel of the .dds containing the normal map is a height map, or do you mean we add the height map to the material layer, and still do the normal map tweaking for the normal map?
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Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
I'm not actually 100% sure how parallax occlusion maps work. All I know is that once you've baked or handmade your usual normal map, you have to invert a bunch of things to get it to be a parallax occlusion map.
Yeah, about that, zanny, read the topic where Cardinal said that obscure name, gotta say he's wrong. They're just normal maps for real, the way we do them is probably not the proper way (he's right about that) but they just lack one of the colors which is the Z information for the normal map, our guess (along with other people a few months ago on IRC) was that blizzard uses that info somewhere else, thus the normal map must not have it or it generates it somehow. So stop confusing people with that term.
About alpha channels, it really depends. for example the dds for map it's an RGBA format (red, green, blue, alpha), USUALLY the alpha channel in the diffuse map is just the player color information. You can set it to either be the player color info, or an actual clipping mask in the M3 plug ins for 3ds max (you want to use max, not maya). Note that this is just in the diffuse map. In other maps the alpha channels seem to not be able to render as player color.
About making the textures. You pretty much make them the way you make any texture. Create them with an image editor, use max to apply them as materials to your models, if you have a high poly model and want it to just use a normal map instead use your favourite normal map baking app, ect.
Note that normal maps for SC2 are quite different (note that from my first reply to jack) there's a way to make regular normal maps in SC2's way but I can't seem to find that topic right now :P
Thank's for all the help guys, you've answered a good amount of questions for me. You seem to know what you are doing so maybe you can help me with another problem I'm having.
I can find endless tutorials and forum posts about exporting texture files that all say just right-click - 'export'. I have tried right clicking on the preview image of the diffuse texture I want in the 'Data Editor' and also on the file in the 'Previewer', I've right clicked just about everywhere and no dialogue is appearing offering the option of exporting. I can export the M3 files which I can probably open in maya and extract the textures from but everyone says that there is a way of exporting .dds texture files quickly (right-click - 'export'). Why can't I right click and export texture files?
Basically, what they've told you except that it is not in the preview window or image, you have to press the "find" button on the previewer window so it lists all files in... a list? :P and you should be able to just right click and export.
Reference image from the tutorial:
EDIT: just re-read your post.
No, you cannot just "directly" open M3 models with maya. To open M3 files you need the 3ds max M3 plug ins. And yes, that's for 3ds max only. Also, textures aren't built in the model or embedded in anyway, textures are separate files so even if you opened the model, you'd only see materials applied no textures to export out from the model itself.
Just thought I'd clear that up so you don't get confused after.
Also, don't bother rendering normal maps, creating high polys in zbrush for it, nor baking them. It's useless since the current exporter handles normal maps differently. For now, I suggest just using the nvidia normal map filter to generate a normal map from a grayscale image of your diffuse (or commonly texture map). Limit your depth to 30 in the filter. Going too deep will create nasty dark spots on your model.
Also, normal maps have issues the cause i have no idea. So, what I did to minimize issues is:
1. Multiply your normal map's blue channel over both your red and green channels. Then do the swapping. Orange normal maps is called dxt5 normal maps.
2. Assign the same normal map to your material in 3ds max as the height map.
3. If issues still occur, overlay red over green channel, multiply over the blue channel, and use this mix as both the green and alpha channel of your normal map.
I've searched this website and google to no avail. So, as far as I can see, textures are composed of an image - e.g. tiles, an Alpha Channel that defines how the light reflects of the edges of those tiles and another layer which seems to control how that texture overlays with other textures when blending them together with an airbrush-style tool. I would guess that the Alpha Channel (which in the case of a grass texture for example, will be a muddle of red and orange pixels) is not drawn manually. I should hope that a texture can be modelled as a 3D image in relation to the shape of the pattern in the texture image in order to create an alpha channel automatically.
Is it possible to automatically create a working SC2 texture using Adesk MAYA? If not, is it possible using Photoshop or any other software? Does anyone know of a good tutorial for creating textures with Alpha channels and the other layer relating to blending specifically for StarCraft 2?
http://www.galaxywiki.net/index.php?title=Models there's a small amount of information there about textures. Basically, a texture in Starcraft II is an image, usually in dds format, but sometimes in tga format. The texture may be diffuse (the actual colour of the model) specular (how shiny the model is) emissive (used for glows) and normal (parallax occlusion in sc2's case. Normal maps add detail to the model that isn't actually polygon-modeled.).
The alpha channel defines which part of the image is seethrough. If you have a window, you want it to be mostly seethrough but you also want to have a but of dirt on it, perhaps, and a crack or a bullet hole. You use a diffuse map to colour in the dirt, then make the image more transparent, using photoshop/gimp/paintshop pro.
Where you talk about alpha mapping and a muddle of orange pixels above, you actually mean a normal map. Normally, normal maps are blue and purple-toned. However, as SCII uses parallax occlusion maps, you have to invert parts of your normal map to get it to work correctly, causing it to look orange to the human eye. 3D modeling programs usually have a normal map bake function that you use to create a normal map from a high-polygon model. Once you've done that, follow one of the several tutorials around for converting your normal map to a parallax occlusion map.
Jack, with regards to Parallax Mapping and starcraft 2, do you mean the alpha channel of the .dds containing the normal map is a height map, or do you mean we add the height map to the material layer, and still do the normal map tweaking for the normal map?
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
I'm not actually 100% sure how parallax occlusion maps work. All I know is that once you've baked or handmade your usual normal map, you have to invert a bunch of things to get it to be a parallax occlusion map.
Yeah, about that, zanny, read the topic where Cardinal said that obscure name, gotta say he's wrong. They're just normal maps for real, the way we do them is probably not the proper way (he's right about that) but they just lack one of the colors which is the Z information for the normal map, our guess (along with other people a few months ago on IRC) was that blizzard uses that info somewhere else, thus the normal map must not have it or it generates it somehow. So stop confusing people with that term.
About alpha channels, it really depends. for example the dds for map it's an RGBA format (red, green, blue, alpha), USUALLY the alpha channel in the diffuse map is just the player color information. You can set it to either be the player color info, or an actual clipping mask in the M3 plug ins for 3ds max (you want to use max, not maya). Note that this is just in the diffuse map. In other maps the alpha channels seem to not be able to render as player color.
About making the textures. You pretty much make them the way you make any texture. Create them with an image editor, use max to apply them as materials to your models, if you have a high poly model and want it to just use a normal map instead use your favourite normal map baking app, ect. Note that normal maps for SC2 are quite different (note that from my first reply to jack) there's a way to make regular normal maps in SC2's way but I can't seem to find that topic right now :P
My bad, they're just weird normal maps. Windexglow said in one topic here "To convert a blue normal map to an orange one...
Take your blue normal map. Invert it. Go to red channel. Copy and paste red channel into your alpha layer. Go to red layer and fill in with black.
You have a orange normal map now. Remember to save with alpha layer."
Or just use the normal map converter photoshop actions if you have photoshop.
Thank's for all the help guys, you've answered a good amount of questions for me. You seem to know what you are doing so maybe you can help me with another problem I'm having. I can find endless tutorials and forum posts about exporting texture files that all say just right-click - 'export'. I have tried right clicking on the preview image of the diffuse texture I want in the 'Data Editor' and also on the file in the 'Previewer', I've right clicked just about everywhere and no dialogue is appearing offering the option of exporting. I can export the M3 files which I can probably open in maya and extract the textures from but everyone says that there is a way of exporting .dds texture files quickly (right-click - 'export'). Why can't I right click and export texture files?
@saltydog87: Go
Try this: http://farty1billion.dyndns.org/starcraft%20ii%20graphics%20guide/chapters/24.html From a tutorial I was working on.
Basically, what they've told you except that it is not in the preview window or image, you have to press the "find" button on the previewer window so it lists all files in... a list? :P and you should be able to just right click and export.
Reference image from the tutorial:
EDIT: just re-read your post. No, you cannot just "directly" open M3 models with maya. To open M3 files you need the 3ds max M3 plug ins. And yes, that's for 3ds max only. Also, textures aren't built in the model or embedded in anyway, textures are separate files so even if you opened the model, you'd only see materials applied no textures to export out from the model itself. Just thought I'd clear that up so you don't get confused after.
Also, don't bother rendering normal maps, creating high polys in zbrush for it, nor baking them. It's useless since the current exporter handles normal maps differently. For now, I suggest just using the nvidia normal map filter to generate a normal map from a grayscale image of your diffuse (or commonly texture map). Limit your depth to 30 in the filter. Going too deep will create nasty dark spots on your model.
Also, normal maps have issues the cause i have no idea. So, what I did to minimize issues is:
1. Multiply your normal map's blue channel over both your red and green channels. Then do the swapping. Orange normal maps is called dxt5 normal maps.
2. Assign the same normal map to your material in 3ds max as the height map.
3. If issues still occur, overlay red over green channel, multiply over the blue channel, and use this mix as both the green and alpha channel of your normal map.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.