How do I use Sacred 2 Icons Bump and Spec Maps?

[Schot 407]

So I've got about 600+ NPC icons that I plan to use for the Quest Dialogues Template I've been working on. I was just about to get going when I realized something terrible... Only 5 of the 600+ portrait icons have their spec and bump maps applied. Ugh! This means that all the icons look very flat. All the assets I need are there but I don't know how to combine them yet so I'm wondering if anyone has ideas on how I need to render these layers.

 

I had hoped to just overlay one on top of another in Photoshop but that didn't prove fruitful. Ideally I'm hoping to somehow batch process all 600+. I'm willing to use a viewer if I have to...

 

 

Base

 

Bump/Texture/Depth Map

 

Specular/Lighting Map

[tom.morrow 89]

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Here's a quick test I did

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I overlayed one on top of the other, starting with the last and working up, as a watermark, 50% transparency

 

And another, starting with 1st image and overlaying each on top with 80% transparency

 

 

I think the 2nd turned out way better

 

but I suppose you already tried this and found the result lacking in quality

I hope a member more experienced in imaging may shed some light

best regards

 

 

Remember Sacred1 bug #4624...

Edited October 29, 2013 by tom.morrow

[Schot 407]

Thanx for jumping in tom! Documentation on the net regarding this seems to be minimal. Though I'm probably not asking the right question yet. Hate that. That's more or less what I tried but today I decided to explore the 3D side of photoshop to see if I could come up with something. I got a lot closer to the result I'm looking for by loading a New Mesh --> Plane and then fiddling with it's associated textures. I can see that the depth is being used in this way but I don't really know how to order things yet... I could try a 3d app to do this but what's great about photoshop is that once I know the steps to complete the image I can build a batch renderer through photoshop to complete the reast of the 600+ NPC icons. I coooouuuld just use the flat icons as is but... I prefer to suffer, haha.

 

Here's a sample of the DM icon taken from a dialogue in game:

 

 

Here's what I managed so far in photoshop. The mesh layer is on top and it's Diffuse layer and planar depth map below it:

[tom.morrow 89]

Are you working on JPG's or on the original versions DDS?

 

I just used your 3 example JPG's, saved and watermarked them on top another,

but maybe the convertion to JPG had already lost needed data for a good result.

 

I know I could have gone and found and extracted the DDS but im using irfanview,

which doesn't load DDS, something about needing a plugin or other...

 

And, yeah, doing 600 of them one by one would be a pain, batch convertion for the win!

 

EDIT:

you're right, the in-game shot looks way better than teh flat base icon

Edited October 29, 2013 by tom.morrow

[Schot 407]

Oh good question. I should have thought to mention that. I started out with JPG when I was tryng some simple overlaying. When I started toying in the 3D section of photoshop I was using JPG as well. The results were unexpected so I switched to the DDS versions and got the somewhat better results as posted above.

 

3 DDS laters inside

DM DDS Layers.zip

 

So after much time and googling. This is such a hard subject to google for. Ugh. The criteria that finally lead me to something useful was; combine dds map layers. Which is where I found this great plugin for photoshop:

 

NVIDIA Texture Tools for Adobe Photoshop

 

I just found it now so I'm gonna give it a try! It makes sense though considering Sacred 2 was developed with Nvidea in mind. I'm sure they used some tools provided by them even.

 

So for reference sake and for any reading for the first time here is a comparison of pre-rendered Dragon Mage dialogue icon and post:

 

[tom.morrow 89]

Brad, that link is a bit messed, it links right back to your 1st post in the thread.

 

Just a heads-ups no biggy

 

 

cheers

[Schot 407]

Argh. This forum editor is so bugged... Fixed!

[Flix 5,116]

I've noticed links behaving strangely on the forums if I just paste them into the post editor. When I do that, it posts as a link, but it just links back to the forums. I have to select the link, then click the link toolbar button and enter in the link manually each time. Only then does it go to the actual address I want it to. Kind of a pain in the butt.

 

Example:

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Incendiary_Shower

 

I just pasted in the address to Incendiary Shower on the Wiki. Doesn't take you there though. Takes you to the front page of the forums. Or back to the thread, or whatever. Not the right place.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Flix

[tom.morrow 89]

True, this is a general behavior of the editor, it affects posts and PM's

 

need to use the link button for it to function right

[Schot 407]

I've noticed links behaving strangely on the forums if I just paste them into the post editor. When I do that, it posts as a link, but it just links back to the forums. I have to select the link, then click the link toolbar button and enter in the link manually each time. Only then does it go to the actual address I want it to. Kind of a pain in the butt.

 

Example:

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Incendiary_Shower

 

I just pasted in the address to Incendiary Shower on the Wiki. Doesn't take you there though. Takes you to the front page of the forums. Or back to the thread, or whatever. Not the right place.

 

 

True, this is a general behavior of the editor, it affects posts and PM's

 

need to use the link button for it to function right

 

 

Fixed that little problem. Had tried to fix a different bug which caused this one so I put all the parts back.