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What is bumpmapping, envmapping and specular? [Solved]

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:58 pm
by jedi_pilot
Hello, I've found plenty of tutorials on how to do these, but I have a question... What does each of the following prcocesses do to your model, and how do they improve the quality???

-bumpmapping
-envymapping
-specular

Thank's for answering my noobish question :wink: .

Re: just curious?

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:24 am
by DarthD.U.C.K.
Bumpmapping:
another texture (with same UVs as the normal texture) is applied on the model which defines the heights of the normal texture, the brighter a part is, the higher it is.
Ingame the game will put lighting on the model as if the details/heights are modeled onto it (you'll see it better if you apply specular too which can be done with repsharpshooters meshtool)

EnViroNmentalmapping:
another texture (a cubemap) is "applied" on the model, ingame the model will reflect this environment

Specular:
this applies specular realtime lightglare on the model

Re: just curious?

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:29 pm
by jedi_pilot
so am I correct to say that bumpmapping is for making your model look high quality, by making an "optical illusion" :wink: ? even if your model is rather low-polly?

Also, can you bumpmap your model with RepSharpshooter's meshtool?

Re: just curious?

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:24 pm
by DarthD.U.C.K.
i wouldt say high quality, it can add more details but how good you see it depends on the lightsettings on the map
you cant see most of the shipped bumpmaps most of te time, but the bumpmap can be better seen, if you add specular and bumpmap (thats whats repsharpshooters too does), you can also glossmap something which will it make more plasticlike looking

Re: just curious?

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:31 pm
by jedi_pilot
Can you glossmap things with the Meshtool :? ? Also, can you do more than one operation on the the same model? for example, bumpmap and specular one part of your model, while gloss mapping the other part?

Re: just curious?

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:08 am
by DarthD.U.C.K.
you cant glossmap with the meshtool, in XSI you can give every single polygon one flag with the meshtool you can only give one material a flag
i resharpshooters specular and bumpmap must be a special flag

Re: just curious?

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:54 am
by jedi_pilot
Ok, one more question :wink: ....Is your bumpmap texture any different than your normal texture???

Re: just curious?

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:32 am
by Teancum
Take a look at the pictures in this article. They explain how bump mapping works really well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumpmap

Re: just curious?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:18 am
by jedi_pilot
That seems to have cleared up some questions...Thank's :D .