dscowboy
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- Jul 9, 2003
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I watched the Kliener's Lab video again and realized that all of Alyx's exposed skin appears to be normal-mapped. The rest of her model isn't, but her face and neck and top of chest are, the shading on those parts is far too soft.
Also, watching the G-Man video, his body is obviously not normal-mapped but his face is. And Dr Kliener looks similar.
In Barricade, I'm guessing Barney's face is normal-mapped though it's hard to tell. The rest of his body is definitely not, all the creases on it are in the diffuse textures. I can't tell about the faces of the city-17 people or the combine, but the shading on their faces is pretty smooth. If it's not normal-mapped, it's pretty high-poly.
So it seems that Valve's models have normal-mapped faces only, at least the ones that we've seen so far. Is anyone else seeing this? This will be a good guide for us building our character models.
On a side note, I also noticed that the static 'world' lighting (baked into brush textures when the map is compiled) does not shade props/models/characters, while the dynamic lighting does. Watch Kliener when he moves to his computer; the dynamic light above him shines off his dome. But in Barricade when the city-17 people are moving through the building, when they step into a lighted area they just suddenly 'become brighter' like models did in HL1. Unrelated, I know, but interesting.
Also, watching the G-Man video, his body is obviously not normal-mapped but his face is. And Dr Kliener looks similar.
In Barricade, I'm guessing Barney's face is normal-mapped though it's hard to tell. The rest of his body is definitely not, all the creases on it are in the diffuse textures. I can't tell about the faces of the city-17 people or the combine, but the shading on their faces is pretty smooth. If it's not normal-mapped, it's pretty high-poly.
So it seems that Valve's models have normal-mapped faces only, at least the ones that we've seen so far. Is anyone else seeing this? This will be a good guide for us building our character models.
On a side note, I also noticed that the static 'world' lighting (baked into brush textures when the map is compiled) does not shade props/models/characters, while the dynamic lighting does. Watch Kliener when he moves to his computer; the dynamic light above him shines off his dome. But in Barricade when the city-17 people are moving through the building, when they step into a lighted area they just suddenly 'become brighter' like models did in HL1. Unrelated, I know, but interesting.
