textur tutorial

=Mr.P=

hey everyone again.
i have noticed that there is no topic fore how to make textures and two guys pm me and ask how to.
so i'm gonna  to post a small tutorial



you have to save your picture as a dds file
(DX5 : ARGB : 8bit : Interpolated Alpha .DDS)
 
pixel size 1024x1024 or 512x512
let's say you save it as (test1.dds)


you will also need to do a Normal map and Specularity map
and call them test1_normal.dds and test1_SPEC.dds

make a folder with the name of your texture library called (for example) my_texture
and save the folder in
 
C:\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\ns2\materials\my_texture


now when you have those 3 files + the folder you have to create a material file
and open it in notepad ++ or a similar program

copy this code


shader = "shaders/Level.surface_shader"
albedoMap = "materials/my_textur/test1.dds"
normalMap = "materials/my_textur/test1_normal.dds"
specularMap = "materials/my_textur/test1_SPEC.dds"

surface = "rock" 


or "metal"

Solaris

I appreciate your effort, but to be honest, your tutorial lists what to do but spends no time at all on HOW to do these things. There is a thread about material files that goes into a bit more detail here: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/130208/request-material-files-explained#latest

Still there is no comprehensive "making simple textures" tutorial yet as far as I can tell. You have to put the pieces together yourself.

=Mr.P=

you mean like how to make shader/normalmap/specularmap

Insane

If you want to learn the nut-and-bolds of how to make textures, as in how to actually create basic texture images, then there are a huge array of tutorials out there. I recommend starting with the Polycount Wiki

Howser

For step-by-step tutorials on making different types of textures try philipk's site. They can be quite advanced but I like his methods and I have stolen a lot of tricks from him. 

For generating normal maps I recently got told about a nice bit of freeware called knald.While I haven't spent much time with it, I can tell you its 3d preview is top notch, it'll give you a good idea of how your texture maps will interact when they're in game. 

I personally use ndo2, its plugs straight into photoshop, and there's a free trial version so you could try it to see if it fits your workflow.

Stardog

There is a wiki here:

http://wiki.unknownworlds.com/ns2/Importing_Custom_Textures