Halo 2 - Custom Bumpmapping Tutorial

[Not Zachary88-2]

Custom Bumpmapping Tutorial
-Credits to JacksonCoug4r for his help and useful guide. If you've tried bumpmapping before, or have no clue what bumpmaps are, this tutorial will show you what they are, and how to edit them correctly.


What is Bumpmapping?
"Bumpmaps" are related to "Bitmaps". They are textures, but a little unique. They give a rock its "rough" texture, or give water those "waves". They represent the roughness and feel of bitmaps. However, texture or not, skinning them / changing them is a little more difficult.

Tools
[ Entity UE 1.6 ]
[ A Skinning Application (preferably Adobe Photoshop) ]

The Tutorial
Step 1: Bumpmap Extraction
For this step, we will extract a bumpmap.

• Open the map of your choice and scroll down to the [bitm] tag.

• Now click the plus sign to expand it. The long list of bitmap tags will appear. Now, bumpmaps end with either "_bump" or "_bmp". I will be using this tag: "scenarios\bitmaps\forerunner\industrial\floors\pl ate_bump".

• Now, notice the format down at the bottom. It reads "P8". Remember that, because I will explain that later.

• Now go up to the blue plus sign (Raw Editor) and click it to expand the dropdown menu. Select "Save Bitmap".

• Choose a name for it and pick a location. Then hit "OK".

Step 2: Bumpmap Editing
For this step, I will show you how to edit bumpmaps.

• Open up your bitmap in your skinning application. I will be using Adobe Photoshop. Now follow the steps according to the picture.

• You should be here now:

• Now mess around with the settings. You can make it flat, the existing bumps stick out even farther, etc. Now i changed the "Scale" to "100", and the "Filter Type" to "4 Sample", and this is what i got:

• Now go to "File" > "Save As". Replace the old one, and you will be prompted for the .DDS format you would like to save it as. Remember the "P8" format I pointed out? That is a palletised version of "A8R8G8B8", or "8.8.8.8 ARGB". Save it as that format. When we inject the bumpmap, Entity UE 1.6 will compress the format into "P8".

• Congratulations! You've successfully edited a bumpmap.

Step 3: Bumpmap Injection
For this step, we will inject your custom bumpmap.

• Open your map up in Entity again, and go back to the same bumpmap. Instead of saving it, hit "Inject".

And that's it! Have fun with your custom bumpmap (also keep in mind that you can turn textures into bumpmap texture with this tutorial too!)

~Enjoy

[Human Immortal]

Very nice job

[Dark R0gue]

can we see some before and after pics

[Not Zachary88-2]

can you try it first ... ?

there arent many before and after pics in skinning tutorials ...

[Autonamus]

before he tries it he wants to see what is dose and goon be the first to try some before and after pics

[Not Zachary88-2]

well, the example i gave wont be very noticable.

i promise, your just changing the way the texture would appear (flat, rugged, etc.). If you must get them, then you'll have to wait until i get back to my xbox

[joey4785]

Nice tut dude