Just curious, what would have to be done to make a simple interface for this (say, a well to drop the input image into and a button to do the conversion and save the image to a file?)

NoradNinja Wrote:Just curious, what would have to be done to make a simple interface for this (say, a well to drop the input image into and a button to do the conversion and save the image to a file?)

Putting together a simple Cocoa front end wouldn't be particularly difficult, but it's a bit more than I'm up for at the moment. Maybe sometime later, or if anyone else wants to try, feel free.

Glad it works! It was a fun little diversion to write.

ThemsAllTook Wrote:Putting together a simple Cocoa front end wouldn't be particularly difficult, but it's a bit more than I'm up for at the moment. Maybe sometime later, or if anyone else wants to try, feel free.

Glad it works! It was a fun little diversion to write.

Thanks for doing it, you have saved me a lot of hassle.

I may try putting a front end together, if I have any trouble, I will get back here to see what I need to do.

You could use Platypus to bundle it together with a script. I've done that before. Very simple.

Skorche Wrote:You could use Platypus to bundle it together with a script. I've done that before. Very simple.

Ok, can you help me with this? I'm not sure quite what to do, I have added the command line app to the Resources in Platypus, but I guess I need an applescript to execute that calls the command line app...I'm not sure how to proceed from here (again, not a coder...)?

Also, i found a great Photoshop action here (right click, save as) to combine fine detail normal maps generated with NormalMappr and the large scale detail maps made with this method to recover ALL the detail from the image, all you have to do is paste the fine scale map into a new layer in the large scale map and run the action, then disable the fine scale layer and flatten the image, it looks great and gives you the best of both methods! Once I am done, I will post a workflow method I have come up with for doing this as well as baking ambient occlusion data into the shader, it makes for super realistic surfaces with relatively simple (ambient, spec, normal) shaders that look great on a broad range of hardware.

A render of the rock surface with the large scale detail and the fine scale detail normal maps combined. Quite pleased with the appearance, what do you guys think?

Image link

Thats pretty good, but it won't tile. Is it seamless?

I'm a little late to the party, but I see references to "NormalMappr" -- and I'm wondering if you're referring to the app I posted here a few months back ( http://idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14114 ). I'm just curious if it's my app, since it would bring a little ray of happiness to my day...

Today's my last day in my 20's... I'm getting old.

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:I'm a little late to the party, but I see references to "NormalMappr" -- and I'm wondering if you're referring to the app I posted here a few months back ( http://idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14114 ). I'm just curious if it's my app, since it would bring a little ray of happiness to my day...

Today's my last day in my 20's... I'm getting old.

Of course it is your app. I absolutely love it, btw. Between you and ThemsAllTook, you guys have saved me from having to either install Boot Camp/WindowsXP/Photoshop on my Mac Pro as well as making it so I can use my PPC TiBook to generate normal maps on the road. Seriously, thanks, I could really have used this stuff when I was in Uni and am very happy to have it now.

So, now that I have you here, if ThemsAllTook is cool, can you roll the functionality of his command line app into NormalMappr? I would basically need to be able to load an already generated map into the program and use say a checkbox to 'normalize only' the image (see the top post tutorial link for the reason and an example of how Nvidia does it in their PS filter).

Here is a sample of the work I do, couldn't have done it without your app.

Real time road sign

PatrickA Wrote:Thats pretty good, but it won't tile. Is it seamless?

Nah, I just used this as a test to get the method for editing the normal map in PS down. If I needed it to tile, I would have fixed the source image up before doing the normal map process.

Thanks for the comment...I went to Fullsail and got a degree in Computer Animation. They taught us some game stuff in GCSD (Game Scene and Character Design) about halfway thru the program, but all this stuff I have had to learn on my own after school.

NoradNinja Wrote:
So, now that I have you here, if ThemsAllTook is cool, can you roll the functionality of his command line app into NormalMappr? I would basically need to be able to load an already generated map into the program and use say a checkbox to 'normalize only' the image (see the top post tutorial link for the reason and an example of how Nvidia does it in their PS filter).

I think I could do that. I'll have to consider how to gracefully integrate it into the GUI, however. I can see two options:

1) Open an already made normal map, and just have a button to normalize it. Easy enough.

2) Add a "normalize" button to the normal map generator gui, such that you can normalize it while creating it.

As a user of my app, how do those sound?

NoradNinja Wrote:Here is a sample of the work I do, couldn't have done it without your app.

Real time road sign

That's the most ill-treated road sign I've ever seen. You making a silent hill game?

Option one would be the best, as I would be opening a normal map that had been edited in PS after generating it with NormalMappr. The issue is that the editing screws up the blue channel, and the normalize function is to correct for this. Option two would be moot, because NormalMappr already generates a normalized map, again, it is only after editing this map that the normalization needs to be corrected.

As for the sign...I don't want to give anything away, but the game is being designed with scaring the crap out of the player in mind

Ah, that makes much more sense to me. Hell, I'll read the article more closely. Perhaps I can put the whole pipeline into NormalMappr...

( provided of course your initial image is tileable )

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:Ah, that makes much more sense to me. Hell, I'll read the article more closely. Perhaps I can put the whole pipeline into NormalMappr...

( provided of course your initial image is tileable )

That would be groovy, although because the amount of blurring you have to do to each layer varies depending on the source image as well as the number of layers, it may be difficult to create a 'one size fits all' solution...maybe if there were sliders to adjust the number of layers as well as the amount of progressive blur...

Also, it wouldn't really make a difference if the image was tileable or not, the method is the same either way

BTW, you wouldn't have to put the whole pipeline in, but man, if you did that...you would be the MAN.

OT, the more we talk about this, the more I want to send you $5-10 as a donation for your work. Do you have a way I could do this? Not trying to bribe, but seriously, I appreciate your work and wouldn't mind giving a bit to encourage your further development.