-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpViewer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpViewer is an utility to preview the results of the bumpmaps. It uses OpenGL for rendering and is able to load different objects with different textures and bumpmaps. WallMaker examples are in the 'Textures' directory. BumpCharm examples are in the 'Examples' directory. You can also preview the results of the plugins using the "Metal Bump" 3dsmax shader. The installer contains additional information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WallMaker -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WallMaker is a simple, but easy to use utility plugin for 3d studio max, that allows you to create normal maps and texture maps for walls, floors, ceilings and other planar objects. WallMaker provides a new way of authoring textures and normalmaps, different from traditional 2d painting programs, and provides amazing results with very little effort. - Fast usage guide: Copy wallmaker.dlu to the plugin directory and open it through the utility tab. Open the wallmaker_test.max scene, select the objects and press the extract button. This will create a normal map using the geometry of the selected objects. Try the different options of the utility panel, you can change the material, texture map, specular map, detail bump, and other properties of the surface directly changing the material of the object. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpCharm -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpCharm is another plugin, more complex than the previous one. It allows you to extract normal maps in tangent and object space using ray casting ala Hoppe. It's very similar to what crytek is providing, so if you have used it, you won't have problems with it. You need two objects at different resolutions, the high res object doesn't have to be texture mapped, while the low res does. - Fast usage guide: Copy bumpcharm.dlu to the plugin directory and open it through the utility tab. Open the bumpcharm_test.max scene, and simply press the extract button. The scene is ready to extract the bumpmaps, so you don't have to do anything else. If for some reason it fails, you can select the high poly object and press 'Select' and repeat that with the low poly, press again select, and it should work. The evaluation version of BumpCharm adds a detail-bump as water-mark, but in the release version you can use any other max material. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issues -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are some issues with multithreading in the plugins that I have to solve, so please don't change the options or the selection nor close the scene while the plugin works. Both plugins are very fast, so by now it's not a big problem. BumpCharm is far from finished, there are some issues with mirroring and with inverted texture coordinates. I should also add some raytracing heuristics as in Alex Vlachos's plugin. Models usually need some work before using them with BumpCharm. For example, in order to get crytek example models working, I'd got to recompute the smooth groups of the low resolution object and retesellate the high res one. I've added some screenshots in case nothing works and you want to have a look to what I'm able to see :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I discontinued the development of this tools some months ago, but I will probably continue it later since this is part of the topic of my Thesis. I will also release the source code as soon as I clean it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- License -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is free software. Code is actually not available, but it will be in the future under a non-restrictive license. If you use any of this plugins please give me (Ignacio Castaņo) credits, and I'ud be happy if you send me samples of your work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The low and high res models of the man have been done by Julio Cesar Espada. Hey many thanks for your help! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NO WARRANTY -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This programs are provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, regarding the operation of the software product, including warranties of merchantability or its fitness for use for any particular purpose. By installing this programs, you agree to accept all liability regarding its use or misuse. Ignacio Castaņo castanyo@yahoo.es