HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

I am fairly new to HaloMods and Halo modding tools. I actualy dont mod at all. I mainly use tools such as Darkmatter and Ch2r for observation purposes. I know some applications such as Darkmatter and Ch2r are able to extract bump maps, but there is a big problem...

The bump maps being extracted are not in the correct format. While they are being extracted just exactly how they are stored no pre-game proccessing that may be done to those bitmaps is being considered.

The greyscale values that are visible in the bump maps extracted using Darkmatter and Ch2r do not actualy represent the height values, but instead represent the rate at which the height values change (the +- difference between the height values)

I just wanted to point this out to any developers so they may try to take the time to correct this problem. I have been messing with the DarkMatter source today and I am working on some code to re-construct a useable bump map from the current ones.

If an accurate solution is already known to this problem then please let me know. (please dont give me some blur in photoshop BS)

Thx

you could take the cheap way out and make a bumpmap out of a DX1 format. just take a copy of the chief's camo bump and edit to fit the model of what you want to give a custom bump then relink the new bump to the shader.

Im not talking about creating new assets. Im talking about extracting the current ones. And Im just saying that the way that the apps extract bumpmaps is incorrect.

Doesn't entity do bumps?

There are many tools that will extract a bump map bitmap. You will get an image as a result, but it is not the correct image. The image is not formated correctly to be used as a bump map that will give accurate results.

Ok here is an image to clarify what I am trying to say about the bump maps and how they should look.


Im just hoping a dev. sees this and may implement a solution.

IF you want to make code to correct this, don't do it with those programs do it with Entity... Because that is the most up to date progy.

Um... your visual aid doesn't really explain much. Something about how the line is supposed to go up and stay there, rather than dropping back down, but I have no idea what that line is supposed to represent.

the lines represent the values inside of the images we get when we extract the bump maps. low being black and high being white.

Red line indicates rate of change of the height and its values are what we are seeing in the bump maps.

Blue line indicates the actual values of the height and its values are what we should be seeing in the bump maps.

Any dev should be able to understand what I am getting at. The only solution is to find a way to derive the actual height from the rate of change of the height.

what you see when you extract the image from entity or darkmatter is the alfa of the bump and not the actual RGB section of the bitm. That is why it looks different then other bumps.

Even if it is the alpha my theory still holds true. I just believe that Halo2's engine performs some kind of pre-proccessing on the bump maps so that they can be used.

Also just a little FWI...
The camo bumps are labeled as a bump map but that is not really what they are. They are called "Normal Maps" and require the RGB channels.

A Bump Map or Height Map is what is says, and requires only one color channel to encode the height values. This channel is the alpha channel because the image format is A8 as in 8bits stored in an Alpha channel.

but there is still RGB on the bumps for halo, i have seen them. they look very similar to the camo bumps.

Spike, you are correct there is no current released tool that extracts or injects bump maps or normal maps