[Tutorial] How to Make Custom Planes

[Linus Ågren]

Note that this tutorial is very basic and does not require that much effort to make. (I'm not an expert of this kind of area so)

1. To get started, find a texture you want to use (preferrably tiled) and save it somewhere. (cgtextures.com is a good site to get free textures)
I'll be using this: http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=53670

2. Make sure the size is 512x512 or 256x256 pixels, otherwise, resize it.

3. Download the Nvidia Texture Tools (if you haven't got it already)

4. Open up your image in photoshop and go to Filter -> NVIDIA Tools -> NormalMapFilter.
You can tweak the settings to make the normalmap (bumpmap) look as good as possible, but I just tend to render it quickly. Still looks decent. When you're done, press OK and save the image as IMAGENAME_bump. I use .jpeg but you can use .DDS aswell.

Here are my settings: http://i.imgur.com/LBNL2.jpg

5. For the specular map, I tend to edit the levels of the image.
Open up the diffuse (texture) and click on the black/white circle (bottom right in PS) and click on "Levels...". Play around with it untill the texture is relatively dark.

I usually try to get it somewhat like this: http://i.imgur.com/brVBK.jpg

6. Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Black & White
Play around with the color levels and try to get the image bright on some places. (This is just my method, you can check up more professional ways to do it on the web) Save the image as IMAGENAME_spec.

This is how I made mine: http://i.imgur.com/JrabZ.jpg

7. Open up the Material Editor. Check the General Area & change "decal" to "soliddiffuse".
In Texture Units, tick Diffuse, NMap & Specular.
Choose your different images you just made and add them in the correct fields. Now save it was IMAGENAME.mat and you can use it in your mods!

Final Result: http://i.imgur.com/JrqXa.jpg
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?km5aecj6zguammf

Enjoy!
(I might finetune this tutorial at some point forward)

[Traggey]

I suggest you use Xnormal instead of the Nvidia plugin to generate normal maps.
It's way better and works very much alike the Nvidia plugin.

Also you must invert ( CTRL + I ) the green channel of the normal/bump maps, otherwise they will cast shading on the wrong side of the bumps as I can see the normal map you have here does.

Also for generating normal maps you should make sure to generate from a proper grayscale, where the deeper parts are darker, in your bumpmap the rocks are bumped inwards instead of out, which should be the result you're looking for?

As for the specular maps, white parts = more shiny, black parts = less shiny, so I'd suggest redoing this specular map aswell as it seems very off.
What I'd recommend doing for the specular map is using Xnormals ''Normals to Cavity'' function which creates something called a cavity map, this is basicly edge information, it highlights the edges of your normal map, this can then be used in the specular map to make some more realistic speculars.

[MaZiCUT]

Thanks man, and thank you too Traggey.

[Adny]

Wonderful tutorial, followed it and made a cool grass texture for outdoor environments. Shows up and works properly in game and in the level editor; thanks junkfood2121!