Distortion Map: Heat Haze???

BradMyers82

Hey guys, asking for wisdom once again.

I have been asked to make Heat Haze Distortion Maps for a client, and I have no clue what a heat haze map looks like, what combination of textures I should have (is it like a normal, alpha, and diffuse?), and so forth.

Anyways, I think If I could just see textures that make a heat haze shader it would really allow me to understand what they are, or if anyone can break it down for me that would be really great.

Thanks in advance!

cw

Pretty much just a normal map should do it. Start off with some simple blurry noise. a lot depends on the tech that they are using - can you preview your stuff in their engine or how will it work?

pior

Well wouldn't they be the best at providing you the examples? I'm confused.

cw

yeh, it's a bit of a stretch expecting you to guess as it is such a specifically implemented feature, usually.

hyrumark

Weird, I had the exact same request for a "distortion" texture to be used with a heat haze effect, and I also had no idea what to do.

So, it's just a normal map usually, to "bend" the air for the head haze effect?

rasmus

Yeah - you can't really be expected to do good work without proper instructions. As yer client.

CheeseOnToast

I imagine it's going to be similar to a water effect, so you'll probably need a normal map, a Du/Dv map (for refraction) and a diffuse map. But yeah, you'll need more info from them for sure. There's probably a better way to do it these days, so take the above with a pinch of salt.

throttlekitty

Are you to be writing the shader too? If not, I'd ask what they expect the input to be, probably a normal map likw cw mentioned. Just some repeatable rippley sort of image would work; but scale/frequency would really depend on the implementation.

cw

CheeseOnToast wrote: »

I imagine it's going to be similar to a water effect, so you'll probably need a normal map, a Du/Dv map (for refraction) and a diffuse map. But yeah, you'll need more info from them for sure. There's probably a better way to do it these days, so take the above with a pinch of salt.

could just be as simple as du/dv map for the uv offset on the frame but again depends on the tech. pesky clients!

Eric Chadwick

I added some more info here about DuDv maps, FWIW
http://wiki.polycount.net/DuDv_Map

BradMyers82

Hey thanks for all the replies guys, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I figured it depended so much on the shader and engine that it would be difficult to find a straight answer. Basically my client has me focused on making guns and stuff, but every now and then has me do really technical stuff, and basically anything else that is top priority.

He asked that I just whip this Heat Haze texture up for him for testing purposes as the fx artist would not be available for a little while, and the coders really needed "something".

I think I do indeed understand now what you mean by putting all these responses together though, so thanks again!

EricChadwick: That is extremely helpful, thanks so much! I was gonna google DuDv maps, until you placed that link. Huge help there!

ThrottleKitty: Nope, not writing the shader, couldn't do it even if I wanted to, unless I could work out something with shaderfx (a hack for us non programmers).

SHEPEIRO

glad you seam to have figured what it was they were asking, on a note i find a turbulent perlin noise overlayed twice at different scales and different speeds works a treat for the movement etc