Creating high poly models for normal map and texture baking

[wackedoutbiker]

I found a good free program for normal maps and texture baking, however, I have not yet found any decent shareware or freeware that would work for creating the reference models needed for these methods...ZBrush is obviously out of the question, because I do not have $489.

Any new ideas?

[wackedoutbiker]

Wait...here's that link I wanted to post:

http://www.xnormal.net

[Spyrewolf]

for a hi-poly 3d modeler check out wings3d, it can produce some pretty good models, i never could get my head around it, it's free, so probally your best choice.

http://www.wings3d.com/

or Gmax, if you can find it anywhere i here turbosquid still has it available.
huh...just checked it's still available at their site.

http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

so there's two free options, dunno bout the any others

[psYco]

blender can cope with some pretty high poly things, and its free (i dont like recomending it tho, since i HATE it...)

[zany_001]

blender might do it,if u can get past the learning curve its the best free optoin out there that i have found.

[wackedoutbiker]

Yeah, it would really help to have that subdividing thing that you use in Max or ZBrush to create very highly detailed characters...I'll use the latest release of Wings3d and GMax and find which one is better...

But I oh so love MilkShape, I just wish it could do a little more and stand more than 65,000 polys!

And if anyone else is interested in baking textures for game characters/objects, I hope this thing can be stickied somewhere.

One more tool for converting MeLODy DDS files to TGA or BMP:

http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/D ... rter;29412

[zany_001]

just found out,blender can do wat you wanted,and like i said,(as well as gmax, wich is getting old anyway),its probably the best 3d modelling program thats free that i can find out there.

***EDIT***

The current release version of Blender, however, does not bake tangent normal maps. It can use tangent normal maps for rendering, and it can bake a normal map texture in camera space or object space (can't remember which), but to bake a normal map in tangent space you'll have to use Blender in conjunction with an external program (they are freely available) or wait another release or so.

enigmatic said this on the blender forums.

[paradoxnj]

Someone with knowledge of Python (AndyCR?) can write an export script for Blender to export to NFO and KEY files. They are only text files. This is what 3DS Max exports for Genesis. If the Python scripter is really good, he/she can export prefabs for RFEdit also using the 3DT format.

[wackedoutbiker]

The features are nice. The user interface and learning curve, not so nice.

Oh if only it were more like MilkShape in operation, which would be much better without a poly limit.

[hike1]

I haven't tried this, it's called prebaker.7z, don't remember
where I got it, might have been gamedev.net image of the day


|||||USE AT YOUR OWN RISK||||||
|||||||||NO WARRENTIES|||||||||


Props to libtga (Copyright info in header)
:

This is a command line app and must be passed
params like:

"C:\>pb.exe test.tga badguytest.obj 0 10 1 0 9 1"

After the EXE "test.tga" is the image to write to
"badguytest.obj" is the model, and the next 6
params are the position of the light, and the
look point(not a vector).


Please use, give credit if you redistribute

otherwise FREE as in FREEDOM

[wackedoutbiker]

That looks cool...I'll let you know where I can find it...

Does it do normal maps and all that other good stuff as well?\

Wait, I found it! Thanks.

[wackedoutbiker]

Too bad it doesn't work with my PC...

Oh well...I can always attempt it with xNormal...