Parallax occlusion mapping (version 0.1)

it is, shall I translate the pictures for ya?

 

So for some reason, the urban_acbox1 model doesn't like my parallax map. On the presumption that it's something wrong with my methods and not the model, the .vmt and normal/heightmap are included.

Actually, it's a small version of the normal/heightmap (so it fits in the .zip filesize restriction), but it has the same problem.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it. Change format to DXT5 or even R8G8B8A8 for testing.

To avoid file restrictions use dropbox or something like it.

 

No dice. (Though, for lack of an R8G8B8A8, I used RGBA8888 and BGRA8888.)
In-game pictured here

 

You should have showed me that earlier. It's because this geometry that you have here has wrong normals and tangents. Fix smoothing groups on it.

Each face should have same smoothing group, different faces cannot have the same smoothing group. Make sure texture U/V direction changes properly (Hammer calls it "scale").

If it's a model (I don't remember) then you have to fix it in 3ds/maya.

 

Well, that answers that. Thanks Mootant.

Yes, flasche, it's a model. I'd imagine the other models it's related to are similarly foul. They're simple enough that it's probably easier to replace them... That one in particular is just a cuboid.

 

if you can make it a model, make it a model

 

models are cheaper on hardware, and can be made far more prettier then brushes can

 

propper can handle a square box no problem if you know how to use it

 

tbh that box could easily be made a funk_detail and look far nicer as a brush then as a model

you could even perhaps get phar mapping to work on the brush

 

Blizzerd stop fucking trolling.

Parallax occlusion mapping works on models and brushes. When you have a box all its faces mustn't share normals/tangents in edges.

There's no big difference between model and brush in case of this simple prop. As a brush it'd be saved in geometry in a leaf. As static prop it'd be saved as a model added to static prop manager.

 

Displacements usually use a different shader so probably not if you mean the kind of displacement that can have two textures on it, unless mootant incorporated worldvertextransition (think that's disp blend shader?) functionality into parallaxmappedgeneric or whatever his POM version of lightmappedgeneric is.

I have no idea how you would actually blend parallax maps together though, I suppose seeing as it's just a heightmap you could just blend the grayscales together, might work, don't know if the technique itself makes it more complex than that though.

If he could incorporate blending of parallax maps however, you could theoretically expand that to POM overlays and decals which you could slap onto anything to add parallax mapped dents and things into surfaces.

 

Displacements use the same shader (LightmappedGeneric, WVT is just an alias). But yes, blending 2 heightmaps together hasn't been added yet.

Parallax mapping + decals is a bit hairy. It'd have to match the heightmap on which it was placed.

 

Does that mean texture blending already works with LightmappedParallax, just not heightmap blending? I'm eager to try that out. Though, grassy terrain textures would probably benefit more from coverage by detail props than by pom.

Any expections for specular or translucency?

 

If you can't blend heightmaps you can't blend parallax effects, which means either parallax maps won't work or the texture will act really weird at the blend edges.