.dds and bump maps

[+Sundowner 4,515]

Well folks I'm having some issues with bump maps when saved as .dds, take a look at the pic below....

See all the little "whitish" bits ? they are not intentsional scratches or paint blemishes, they are actually being generated by the bump maps, if I save as .bmp all those little marks are not there just rivets and lines bump mapped as they should be.

The easy way would be to just continue using .bmp's as they work just fine but these Vixens all use 7 maps so 7 x 4096 maps as well as the spec maps and skin itself add up to quite a size.

These are my bump map settings.......

And these are my .dds settings.....

Any ideas.....am I just saving them wrong ?

[+Nightshade/PR 6,855]

I know damn-all nothing about the subject, but the screenshot is fantastic.

[Wrench 9,421]

do bump maps need to be the same size as the skin map?? We sorta stopped using dds some time ago, and they're a PIA (well, at least for main skins)

[+yakarov79 10,503]

yes, dds can do crap with nice skin, Generally, i do not recommend dds. as specular and bumps. Did you try different compression? BC2/DXT3 or BC3/DXT5 and generate MIP maps .

Did you try bump as a high-quality jpg? 

 

54 minutes ago, Sundowner said:

Vixens all use 7 maps so 7 x 4096 maps as well as the spec maps and skin itself add up to quite a size.

We have the end of 2020...and we have tons of aircraft to download,  but we need more high-quality mods.  End-user can always resize skins to the desired format. 

[+russouk2004 6,951]

I suggest nvidia default settings...just use scale  I use between 2 and 4 at most....dds causes lots of oddities with bumps...I find it makes the spec areas that are covered by bumps go lumpy....

I suggest Jpegs as they seem to be fine with the game and max....

also sometimes max settings for spec colour and level...plus glossiness if too high cause similar....let the spec map do the highlighting not the max settings..the Maps rollouts rather than main ones by texture selection boxes..

[+russouk2004 6,951]

heres my settings for the J7PG   they seem ok in game...and are all jpegs..spec and bumps..at default settings in nvidia scale 2 bumps a tad deep but its less in game with a slight adjustment maybe..

its spec map bottom

Edited October 30, 2020 by russouk2004

[+russouk2004 6,951]

this is with slightly lower settings...

[+Sundowner 4,515]

Thanks guys....I'll try some of your suggestions........I didnt realise we can use jpeg's for bump maps.

[+Trotski 832]

Arrrgh the dread DDS What misbegotten devil spawn it be arrrrr.

 

[+swambast 601]

Hey Ant, I find some of this info confusing and there are obviously varying opinions.  I started writing a long explanation but decided to stay on the "bump map" topic and add another opinion to the mix:  For a majority of bump maps, in my opinion I would recommend .bmp esp. if you are trying to preserve "pixel accuracy" of the original texture.  Any other lossy format can result in smear/blur artifacts as pixels get sampled during compression and by far the greatest impact would be to areas that have contrasting brightness/luminescence - say like brighter rivets contrasted against a "shadow".   So there you have another viewpoint.  

[+yakarov79 10,503]

22 hours ago, Sundowner said:

These are my bump map settings......

I usually do bump maps based on white background (255,255,255) white black panel lines, rivets etc.  Then export as *.bmp. After that, I open a file in Shader Map3 - which makes nice bump maps where you can adjust the intensity, sharpness, etc...Then SM3 exports by default as high-quality *.TGA...after that converting to also good quality jpg or bmp is just a piece of the pie. 

If need lines depressed and rivets bulged I am making two separate bump maps and then merging together.