13 May 2018 18:04
I'm having a little trouble understanding the proper use of tags and the settings for using CubeMap & IrfanView 64 to create custom textures. The instructions on the Forum are helpful, but a bit confusing or lacking certain clues.
I've never had much trouble creating 8bit RGB PNGs and converting them to RAW files and then creating the 6 folders and base texture. But I have yet to make a proper 16-bit greyscale bump map. (or a proper RGBA PNG, oh well, that can happen later on).
Usually, I will create a Photoshop PNG or PSD image 16384x8192, RGB 8-bit and save it. Since Photoshop can't work with images that large (anything over 30,000 pixels wide), or save in the RAW file format, I convert the PNG or PSD to Greyscale in IrfanView 64 and increase the number of colors to 16 million. Then I'll resize it up to 32768x16384. I will then save it as a RAW file, around 1.5GB in size. They usually work fine for the detail I want when doing clouds or surface textures. Even with than many colors I think it is still an 8-bit file. Also, I don't know why, but Irfanview 64 calls images with than many colors a 24-bit image file.
I have tried converting a few of them to 16-bit Greyscale RAWs with Irfanview but after running CubeMap they were terribly distorted and completely unusable, even though I was able to load and save them as 16-bit greyscale after running CubeMap. I'm pretty sure I was saving the RAWs as Planar (RRR, GGG, BBB).
I have created colored (not modulated) cloud layers in the past by setting InputChannels to 3, but with all these Bump Maps, I've kept it on the setting for Greyscales; 1, even if I didn't specifically convert it to greyscale in Irfanview. It looks greyscale but it is still RGB. Those worked fairly well too. They were all 8-bit files.
What should the settings be in CubeMap for the following tags in order to create a working 16-bit Bump Map?
# Input RAW file format
InputWidth 32768
InputHeight 16384
InputChannels 1
Input16bit true # capacity: 16 or 8 bits per channel //true = 16-bit so, yeah
InputByteSwap false # for 16-bit: little endian //true is for MAC computers?
InputUnsigned true # for 16-bit: unsigned or signed values //I don't have a clue
# Output files format
OutFormat png //I like PNGs
OutFormat2 png //I like PNGs
TileWidth 256 //Pretty sure this is right
TileBorder 1 //Pretty sure this is right
Out16bit false //Would be set as true if I could get it to work right
OutByteSwap false //Pretty sure this stays false
OutUnsigned true //I don't have a clue
OutInvertAlpha true //I don't have a clue
OutJPEGquality 100 //I think I know what this means lol
SeparateRGBA false //Once I figure out Bump Maps I will use this to make Alpha images
SeparateHiLo false //I wouldn't mind if they are separate files...
DoublePrecision false //I don't have a clue
# Normalization of the elevation map
Normalize true //I think this is correct...
EnterNormData false //I think this is correct...
NormMinValue -32768 //Is this right at all?
NormMaxValue 32768 //Is this right at all?
# The basic cylindrical texture
BaseTexFormat png //I like PNGs for base textures
BaseTexDownSize 64 //32768/512=64
# Parameters for optimization of homogeneous tiles
MinVar 20.0 //Is this supposed to be what the Bump Map height is set on in the scripts?
# Memory settings
MaxMem 1024 //I don't have a clue
MethodSide Line //I don't have a clue
MethodPolar Line //I don't have a clue
# Faces to process //I don't have a clue
Create_NEG_X 1
Create_POS_X 1
Create_NEG_Y 1
Create_POS_Y 1
Create_NEG_Z 1
Create_POS_Z 1
# Stages //I don't have a clue
CreateBaseTex 1
ComputeFaces 1
DownsizeFaces 1
UpdateEdges 1
TileFaces 1
OptimizeTiles 0
CPU: AMD FX-8350 8 core processor 4GHz / GPU: GeForce GT 730 @ 1920x1080, 60Hz with 1GB adapter RAM / RAM: Patriot Signature 4GB 1600MHz 240-Pin DDR3 (only 2GB work, don't buy it) / Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming MS-7693