Tiling textures versus normal map details...

Sammuelsama

Hello guys, I have a little dilemma, I am requested to texture a complete environment and I have been told not to do unique textures for my buildings, due to blurry textures, etc... Then ok to use 2-3 tiling textures to not be to much uniform but how will I manage the baking normals for the windows, the doors, etc... It's probably a stupid question, but I am not in the game industry then I am trying to learn from professionals Thanks for your help

Brendan

I think he means you should tile the diffuse textures (generic concrete block or brick or whatever). Normal maps can be sorta tiled, but they're usually tiling the same as the diffuse map so the cracks and seams line up. If you look right down the middle of the building, the texture and normals for a window (if it's the same level upon level) are the same.

Bake a bunch of windows as part of the building, then use those. Maybe use several and randomize them around. If you have to use dedicated parts for the corners, see if you can get away with just uniquely normal mapping the beveled faces, or join it onto an existing UV island or something.

If you're going to lightmap the thing, you CAN sorta tile it. But the degree of bastardry required for good lightmap tiling is pretty high (and for scrolling them for dynamic time of day is off the chart).

Computron

WTF, tiling lightmaps? :poly142:

If you are not allowed to use many textures, you are going to want to do what snefer did in his modular environment. You will model everything out in low-mid poly detail and then UV a modualr texture so that the normal maps align and possibly use multple UVs to get more mileage...

Here is how Snefer made his textures:



And here is how he applied them to his environment and props:




His whole environment was made with one 256x512 texture. The lightmaps are backed by unwrapping the models uniquely in a second UV channel.

That is in the extreme case that you can only use 2-3 textures, although that seems insane if you are not allowed to custom bake anny assets and must only use tiling textures. What are the exact requirements?

Brendan

like I said, extreme levels of bastardry. If you've got an evenly subdivided ground and a few of (the same) structures casting shadows that aren't overlapping terribly...that's the easiest way. Of course you can't bake it that way, though. It's sorta like when you work with a tiling texture, you start with a lightmap, then you unwrap more stuff to fit it. It won't be as perfect as otherwise, but if you can reuse one part twice then you can double that part's resolution.