Texture Creation, By Lab Rat

[Lab Rat]

Im going to use a texture from one of the original Doom games and show you how to get it working in the Doom3 editor. This process is the same for any texture you want to create.

Before you begin, you need to download the normal map plug in.

Normal Map plugin

Its called, Adobe PhotoShop Normal Map and DDS Authoring Plug-ins

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Load the image into photoshop. Please note, the image must be to the power of 2, so the image needs to be sizes like 256x256, 512x512 etc. The one im using here is 512x512. If you find that the size is too big by the time you get it into the editor, you can go back and rezise all the sections and resave them.

Ok, time to save the first image, which will be your starting image (this one). This will be the diffuse map. Now, I don’t know much about their meanings, but the diffuse map provides the texture with colour.

So go to file, then save as. Give the image a name. Note, the diffuse map texture must be named like this (texturename_d.tga) so there must be a _d after the name. Save the image as a .tga file which can be found in the file type list.

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After clicking save, a box will appear, select 24bits/pixels and make sure there is no check mark in the checkbox labeled compress.

That’s the diffuse map finished. Now onto the bump map. The bump map provides the texture with depth, and give the appearance of 3D but in reality, its simply a flat texture.

Now goto Filter, nvtools and click on normalmapfilter. A box will appear with a preview of your texture in funny colours. These represent the heights and depths of your image.

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You may want to mess around with these settings to get the right look, but for quickness, use my settings

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Ok, now save this as texturename_local.tga. All bump maps are saved with the _local addon.

Now we move onto the specular map. The specular map provides a guidance for the engine to render a light shine across the texture. As the player moves, the light looks different.

To do this, go to filter, render, clouds. The image will fill with clouds (suprisingly). The light areas are where the light will be strongest, and the dark areas will be the dullest. Now, as ive experianced, leaving this as it is will mess up the texture, so it needs to be darkened. I darken it by using the burn tool but im sure there is another way, Im just used to this method.

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As you can see, ive made it pretty dark, this is because on the very white areas, the light will be far too strong and will completely cover up the texture so its unviewable and looks terrible.

Now save this as texturename_s.tga. All specular maps are saved with the _s addon.

*OR*

The way i do the specular map now, is to desaturate the image and then darken it. I find this works better than the cloud method.. To desaturate, go to Image>adjustments.desaturate.

Now we need to make the preview image for the texture panel in the editor. Load up the texture without anything done to it. Here, you can either, resize the image to make it smaller, or leave it as it is. The smaller preview is usually better but for this tutorial, il leave it as it is.

Save this as texturename_ed.tga. The preview images usually have the _ed addon, but many of the textures made by id do not have this, but for safety I do it anyway.

Now go to your doom 3 folder, then into the textures folder. Make a new folder and call it whatever you want. You need to put all the textures into this folder.

Ok, now we need to create the material file. The material file links all the textures together and gets them into the game.

Open up notepad. Type in the following:


textures/texturefolder/texturename
{
qer_editorimage textures/texturefolder/texturename_ed.tga

diffusemap textures/texturefolder/texturename_d.tga
specularmap textures/texturefolder/texturename_s.tga
bumpmap textures/texturefolder/texturename_local.tga
}


Replace all the texturefolder with the name of the folder where you put your textures, and replace texturename with the name of your texture.

This is all that is needed for the material file. Now go to file, save as, name it the same as your texturefolder name (doesn’t really matter) and make sure you replace the .txt with .mtr

Put this file into the materials folder in the doom 3 folder. If the file type is still a .txt, then in the materials foler, click on Tools>Folder Options, click the View tab and scroll down to and uncheck Hide extensions for known file types. Now simply remove the .txt and replace it with .mtr.

Now load up the editor, and go through the texture list and to your folder. The texture preview should show up.

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Remember, if you need to make any changes, just close off the editor, go back to photoshop and change what you think needs changing. Resave then load the editor again to check it.

Ok I think that about wraps up this tutorial. There are many things you can do with the textures, such as add a reflective surface, but this tutorial is for basic textures.

Hope this helps you out. Post here is there are problems.

Lab Rat

[Ice Weasel]

Nice tut, adding to the main list.

[Kolonel Klink]

Very nice. It's pretty detailed as well. I looked at the Texturing tutorials on Doomworld.org but never really understood it. This clears everything up for me. Once again, thanks.

[Lab Rat]

Thanks :D Il see about making more tutorials when I get the chance.

[Luigi]

Great tutorial. :D