Textures FAQ by Hellhound

Status
Not open for further replies.

Cyberion

Administrator
General info on textures

So here are a lot of links and not very detailed instructions.
I ll update it, when starting over by myself with texturing.
Now its only collection.
Normally you find all you need to know here : http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/Texture_Creation

What image can I use for a texture?

Generally any image file can be used as a texture. The only important thing is that both dimensions are a power of two:
2, 4, 8 ...
In general 512x512 is used. For a higher sharpnes you can use higher resolutions on cost of performance.

Here is a good texture resource for you - http://www.cgtextures.com/ (thanks Cyb)
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Material_Download_Sites

Which filetype is supported?

It isn't possible to use a normal imagefile like jpg for a texture in HL2.
So before importing it in hammer, you have to convert it into VTEX (Valve Texture Format) and write in a *.txt file the parameters for compiling. The input format is *.tga

Generall infos:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Texture_Format

How to create a texture?

I normally load an image in a graphics software or start from scratch to draw it.
Than save it into *.tga format and compile it to VTF with the valve tool.

Valve Compile Tool (textbased)
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vtex
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vtex_CLI_use

Compile Parameters:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vtex_compile_parameters

For more comfort and options there is a GUI tool, VTFEdit, I haven't tested yet

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Creating_a_Material

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VTFEdit
http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=40

How to create a normalmap (Height in a texture)

Normalmaps make the texture look more 3Dimensional. You need your finished texture and a special normalmap plugin. This is free form Nvidia for Photoshop or Gimp.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html

Save it with the same filename as the texture and add _normal
mytexture.tga
mytexture_normal.tga
mytexture.txt (compile parameters)

The compiler should find it, if all files are in the same directory.

How to create a specularmap (gloss)

The specularmap adds a gloss to a texture. Best seen in Doom3.
All you need is to convert your texture to a 8bit greyscale and adjust the brightness.
The brighter the specularmap, the more glossy the texture.

Save it again as
mytexture.tga
mytexture_specular.tga (8bit greyscale)
mytexture.txt (compile parameters)

The compiler should find it, if all files are in the same directory.

Other Tutorials

General texture tips:
http://www.mapping-tutorials.de/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20 (german)

Decals:
http://www.haradirki.de/hl2/indextut28.htm (german)

Normal Maps (freeware program to create normal maps for low poly models) - thx to kristus for sharing this info with us.
http://www.xnormal.net
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top