Weird texture issues in CryEngine 3

samo8076

Hi all,

My first post, sorry its a question.

I have been using CryEngine 3 for a couple of weeks now, mainly to get in to level creation. Anyway, up until this week I have been using CryEngines supplied stock assets etc, but now want to import my own.

I created a cube within CryEngine to test a texture out, but I am having weird results. No matter what texture I use with a normal map, the texture doesn't seem to displace at all...looks flat with some highlights.

Also there is a wierd lighter colour band that always appears on the top edge of the cube, and any other square model, even with CryEngine supplied materials (see attachment)

Any ideas? Been trying to work these issues out all week.

Zepic

Are you using the new Cryengine? The STEAM edition with the new PBS system?

samo8076

Hi, no, its the free SDK version 3.5.8

Shiniku

How are you generating your normal maps? You may need to flip your green channel, I believe your normal maps should be +x -y +z.

Zepic

Could you attach another pic with stronger shadows? Right now it doesn't even look like you have a normal map applied. And, what Shinku said, make sure your normal map is flipped to -Y. You can do that in Photoshop by selecting the green channel and hitting ctrl+I. (Just to make sure

samo8076

I have tried xNormal (height 2 normal) and Nvidia both from within Photoshop. I have flipped the green channel.

Shiniku

Could be something funky with the HDR. Especially since your scene has that bright default texture. Try putting it somewhere in the default forest level. As for the normals, maybe you just need to make them stronger or something, not sure why they aren't showing up much. Try changing the time of day and see if you notice the normal map more.

samo8076

I have attached a screenshot with a different texture and my normal settings.

Shiniku

I think it mostly has to do with your lighting setup. I can tell the normals are making a difference, you'd likely notice this if you moved a light around or changed the time of day(especially if you bump up the spec/gloss values).

Basically I would recommend trying to view your asset in a scene that is a close approximation to where you're going to want to be using in.

samo8076

Thanks,

Iv attached a screenshot of it in the forest scene. Does look better.

Am I creating normals the correct way? I do it via Photoshop - xNormal Filter - Height 2 Normal?

Zepic

Yes, that is one way of making a normal map. If you're just making a normal map from a photosourced texture; try using Crazy Bump or better, NDO2 ( http://quixel.se/ndo ).
Your normals are there, it's just the way you're making them isn't very "optimal."

Shiniku

Yeah, I use the xnormal filter a lot, but usually only for subtle overlays. Any big details I always create a high-poly and bake. nDo2 is also a good option if you're wanting to stay in photoshop though.

The crytif plugin also will do a height to normal conversion but I only use it very rarely.

samo8076

Thanks guys, I shall give the suggestions a try. I am very new to this, so sorry with all the questions.

What more, I have created a crate in 3ds Max, applied uv unwrap, and created the 2 attached images. Is this the correct way doing this sort of stuff for cry engine? I can only apply the normal within cry engine too.

Shiniku

If you're making a box that is exactly the same on all 6 sides, you could make better use of texture resolution and have all sides use the same space as a texture. So instead of 6 little squares you would have 1 square filling the whole texture. But, I recommend you just research game art practices and tutorials a bit more.

Checking out the polycount wiki is a good way to start

samo8076

Thanks again.

Joopson

Something too, sometimes my normal map refuses to load in. Not sure why. No matter how many times I resave the texture, or reload it, it just won't show on the model. Normally I end up just duplicating the material, and then it works. Or I remove any and all normal map input, save out my normal map as a different name, and load it in.

That's my only complaint with CryEngine, and it could easily be my fault, but I'd love to know if anybody else has had that issue. Not sure if it still stands in the steam release.