Well, I just need one for normals . This is similar (the same?) as what they are doing in DoomIII and Half-Life2.

Dan, I believe both games use displacement mapping.

No, both use "normal" bumpmapping.

No...no games use real displacement mapping.

Displacement mapping displaces the mesh. It actually alters the geometry.



As you see here, the geometry is as low poly as the guard and wizard models in 3DGS (look at the outline of the model).

Correct. The give-away is on the edges of the model. So I am not looking to actually displace the geometry. Why? Because low-poly geometry does not have enough geometry to displace . But normal maps give the appearance of high detail on low geometry. It is not just the "paint" on the skin that gives it the appearance of being detailed, but the normal map is also affected by dynamic lights.

Dan- zbrush sounds awesome... I know folks using it for normal maps in the unreal3 engine just for this reason!
polybump is the only one so far that I can get to work in A6, as true normal mapping...(see my post in showcase, the head is true normalmapping...)
It actually imports my obj's (or were they 3ds?), with the right uvw info and creates a normal map that can easily imported into MED in sikn2 , and matches up perfectly. The poroblem with ATI's and nvidia;s melody (which is amazing), is that the uvw info doesnt carry over...thats important to me because I texture bake in max, and need those uvws! if anyone know a way please share, since polybump is just a demo and unusable... Melody gives simply amazing results in the viewer, now if i can get it out and keep my uvws...Doom3 quality easily. When I have a 130,00 poly head next to a 700 poly head in melody, IT LOOKS ALMOST EXACT...
i'll post an example image later, you can barely tell them apart.

Drew,

You need to check out ZBrush 2 (Z2). It is awesome. That is why Weta Digital used it (along with Maya) to model for the Lord of the Rings movies. It fits in great with your workflow. You do a base model in your package of choice (I use Silo), bring the model into Z2 add details there and/or paint the UVW map. It rocks!

Drew

I have Melody, and took a .3ds mesh from rendermonkey, pulled it into melody, reduced it from 63K polies down to 3k (probably could have gone lower, but that seemed like a good round number), and createed a normal map for it. I now have the normal map, skin, and mesh into MED, and a saved model. Can you share your script for how you get it to render. So far, no go for any i've tried in 3dgs. If I can get it working, Ill gladly tell all how i did it.

I must admit, in Melody, I could hardly tell the difference between the two models. I want to make a simple a6 demo that toggles between the default mesh, and the normal mapped one, so you can see the difference.

Ahhh sorry about that Dan.. I thought you meant something else. My bad

qwerty-
when you say you brought a 3ds from rendermonkey, where did you dothe original texturing for the 3ds.
Thats my problem, getting the texture and uvw info from the model, made in max..into melody and back out to GS with the mapping stayiing intact, and when I import the normal map, it matches those same uvws....Check your PM, I elaborate on it more there...:(