HL2 Normal maps, yes? No?

S

Shim

Guest
Ok can someone please tell me if HL2 supports normal maps or not? I know it supports bump maps but I can't find any info on normal maps.

Thanks for any help,

Shim
 
Shim said:
Ok can someone please tell me if HL2 supports normal maps or not? I know it supports bump maps but I can't find any info on normal maps.

Thanks for any help,

Shim

Yes it does.

Source: When Gabe is showing those rocks in that cave in the E3 2003 source tech demo.

Other source: GDC 2004 techdemos.
 
Shim said:
Ok can someone please tell me if HL2 supports normal maps or not? I know it supports bump maps but I can't find any info on normal maps.

Thanks for any help,

Shim
Some not so informed sites/people began calling normal maps bump maps. bump maps have been in games for years now. Normal maps haven't. HL2 is supposed to have normal maps, CS:S does have them too.

So if you hear someone saying a modern game has bump maps, they are likely talking about normal maps.
 
and if you make them, The Dark Elf will want to have your babies.
 
SidewinderX said:
and if you make them, The Dark Elf will want to have your babies.
Indeed. I love it when someone pays attention and goes to the trouble of doing the normal maps correctly. Makes me all warm and gooey inside, like sitting in giant rubber pants filled with warm gooey caramel.
 
You promised never to mention the caramel pants!
 
So is it just a matter of making two models, one high poly/detail, and one low poly, both to the same general shape, and letting XSI: EXP|HL2 do the rest?
 
Brian Damage said:
So is it just a matter of making two models, one high poly/detail, and one low poly, both to the same general shape, and letting XSI: EXP|HL2 do the rest?
pretty much yeah, though its a little more involved than that, but generally, yeah.
 
Okay then. Groovy.

/me goes off to take another crack at trying to get XSI|EXP:HL2 working...
 
But it only seems to work with DX9 cards... That's why I use ORB now.
 
So what's the difference between Normal maps and bump maps? Surely a normal just shows what way a face is pointing and then what advantage does it give by mapping a normal? Erm, I know what I mean in my head but that doesn't make sense. Maybe someone could just tell me and then i'd know :D
 
Mint_Sauce said:
So what's the difference between Normal maps and bump maps? Surely a normal just shows what way a face is pointing and then what advantage does it give by mapping a normal? Erm, I know what I mean in my head but that doesn't make sense. Maybe someone could just tell me and then i'd know :D
normal maps - each pixel contains the direction a polygon is supposed to be facing, so when lit, a normal mapped object appears to contain more polygons than it really does

bump map (height map - just grayscape, the brighter a pixel, the higher it is considered to be, but there's no other directional information or depth to it.
 
Sounds like a resonable description to me. Mostly because I didn't really know anyway. :p

Teh leetest is going to be grenades and crap...if you did it right you could use some funky displacment maps and stuff.... /drool...
 
So would you use a Normal Map to simulate something like Crown Molding or Wainscotting?
 
Dark Elf, how may I go about getting a pair of these "caramel pants" of which you speak?
 
Glo-Boy said:
Dark Elf, how may I go about getting a pair of these "caramel pants" of which you speak?

Shouldn't be that hard. Get some caramel, get some pants, combine both ingredients (ie. put caramel in pants), and have fun wearing your caramel pants.

Can't say I have firsthand experience, but in theory it should work.
 
Back
Top