new textures

[Turboman.]

hi, i'm new to this place (thanks to stalwart i found out about this place), some of you might know me as a regular on unreal co-op

i recently made a few new textures as a test and figured they fit well as replacement textures in unreal, i was wondering if this could be of any use to the project (that is if you accept user made content)

the texture replacements that i made are (from package to name)

jwsky.utx
HAZE

spacefx.utx
newneb1
planet1
planet2
planet3
planet4

these textures mainly appear in the endgame cutscene and the intro from return to napali, see the included screenshot if you dont know what i mean

[url]http://intranet.connectics.nl/Turbo/Shared%20Documents/Unreal/endgames3tc.jpg[/url]

i was wondering if anyone could explain to me how to import them as s3tc (for now they are just regular 24-bit uncompressed textures), and more important how i can prevent them to break compatibility, it would be nice to know what kind of tools you guys use.

thanks in advance.

[Hyper]

Wow, that screenshot looks awesome in comparison to the original ugly low-res earth texture. Nice work indeed.

You could also try the UT S3TC earth texture from Facing Worlds, which has an even higher resolution I think.

[Turboman.]

i am aware that there is a high res planet in ut too, although it wasnt the same as the original in unreal since the original was far more cloudy (the ut one messes up the transition when the pod exits the foggy atmosphere).
i also didnt like it that it was a texture from earth taken from the hubble telescope, while ut is set on earth, unreal is set on napali

anyway i forgot to upload the textures yesterday (it was 3am, stupid me!), i am hoping for anyone to tell me how to get them ingame as compressed textures instead of regular 24-bit

here are the .utx packages (please backup both spacefx and jwsky since they will break compatibility i think)

[url]http://intranet.connectics.nl/Turbo/Shared%20Documents/Unreal/files/spacetexturesutx.zip[/url]

the raw .bmp files for if anyone is already working on those packages or wants to import them for me.

[url]http://intranet.connectics.nl/Turbo/Shared%20Documents/Unreal/files/spacetexturesbmp.zip[/url]

i actually took the nebula texture from the nasa website, so credit goes to them for that. i'm not all too fond of it since it doesnt look that much as the space texture in unreal, but it was the closest i could find.

[DieHard SCWS]

I didn't notice the post before...............


Well where to begin lol.

First off you need the conversiontool, i asume you can have it, but i didnt ask Kerilk if it could be released publicly, i will do so.

As far as the HAZE texture, i think that those are covered in the [url=http://www.celticwarriors.net/website/S3TC/S3TCTextures/JWSky/JWSky.htm]new package[/url] already. As i already said i need to redo the nebula, it looks compatible, but i personaly think it looks uncool in Unreal as it is now.


Btw for nebulas and planets, do a search on this site: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/category/nebula/+2

I took the nebula from that site and made some big alterations on it, but not good enough i.m.o.


As far as the SpaceFX textures, that package will be very difficult to recreate, since it contains wet and fire textures, for S3TC you need to be able to recreate them too from scratch (or re-add the original ones), which makes those packages very complicated  But sure if you want to give it a try why not  :)


I downloaded your BMP files, i noticed they are in 1024 x 1024. I myself started a few weeks ago with a minimum creationsize of 2048 x 2048, while scaling them down when finished. You really need that minimum size to be able to add S3TC detail. 4096 x 4096 would be even better lol though i stick to 2048 for now.


This already means that the data i have on the JWSky package is some 958 MB big, almost one gigabyte.....................




Here is a (very) short how to list for now.

1) Create the textures (minimum 2048 x 2048 ).

2) Have this  [url=http://www.celticwarriors.net/website/S3TC/S3TCToolsDownloads/S3TCToolsDownloads.htm]DTX-Tool and Targa[/url] plugin installed in Photoshop.

3) After saving the texture as Targa or DTX 1, DTX3 or DTX5 you need to create a new package by using UT2004 or UE2Runtime-22262001 (not tested by myself yet) which you can find in the same link as above.

4) After creating the package you need to run the S3TCext_Version_03 tool from Kerilk over it (ill ask him if i can make the tool public).

5) Than you have to load the now converted to Unreal package in Unrealed and make the DrawScale and other settings to match the original Unreal settings on it.

5a) The calculation for Drawscale is:
- Original 128 (as example)
- S3TC 1024 (as example)
1024 : 128 = 0.125000

6) Save it and it should be finished now.


At his moment i do not have found out yet, how to make masked textures to work , textures like fire, wave i have not even tried yet........


On the link i gave you, you will find some links to other sites, and there are some tutorials about S3TC (DTX) textures.


Ill hope that helps you a bit for now.
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[Turboman.]

thanks for the info, thats just what i needed to know.

are the average s3tc texture sizes 2048x2048? i didnt know that, guess i'll have to render the entire thing again at 4096x4096.

i hope to see the converter released soon, it might even bring some more interest in retexturing our favorite game

[DieHard SCWS]

No that is not what i ment, if you really start drawing textures by hand in Photoshop, than they need to be at least 2048 x 2048 to be able to add the really tiny details.


After i finisch the texture i scale it down to what size it needs to be, like:
128 x 128
256 x 256
512 x 512
1024 x 1024
2028 x 2048


Its just that your original work needs to be much larger, and if you create them in 4096 x 4096 that would certainly be cool, but keep in mind that if you make alotta textures, this for sure will consume a whole lotta harddrive space.


I would love to create them in 4096 x 4096 but lack of hardrive space made choose for 2048 x 2048 But than again, i asume i will create some textures in 4096 if theres real need for tiny, tiny detail
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[Turboman.]

the retexturing site (its yours isnt it?) is amazing, really usefull stuff over there, especially those tools made texturing alot easier for me :p

i redid the texture at 4096x4096 so they end up being 4 pieces of 2048x2048, i also adjusted the colors a bit to match the original a bit better, havent uploaded it yet, but if you guys want to i can do it? (they're quite huge, but ofcourse i wont upload them as .jpg since they seem to affect quality alot)

i could have done it at 8192x8192 and downscale it to 4096, but indeed the filesize is a bit of a problem, and its also a pain in the ass to render it in 3dsmax

that hubble site of yours is really usefull, the nebula texture replacements are hard to find though, i found pictures that match the original, but they are of so low quality that i didnt bother using those (in fact almost all pictures that i found were low quality 8-bit .gif) so i ended up modifying another one for the spiral galaxy one.

[Kerilkkorn]

Of course the tool can be made public
Was made to be used.

[DieHard SCWS]

The new textures i am working now will be created at 4096 x 4096, but i will not go higher than that, 4096 will be my limit. This already means that each individual texture will be between 50 and 200 Mb.

For a complete package like i am working on the size could topple 35 Gigabyte, that is big enough in my opinium lol.

i found pictures that match the original, but they are of so low quality

Lol, very untrue Look closer than you do now, because the pictures in general are offered in multiple sizes:
Aprox 6 Mb
Aprox 25 Mb
Aprox 68 Mb

And some pictures are even a stagering 100 Mb to 350 Mb big, look better ..............

Of course the tool can be made public
Was made to be used.

In that case i will add the downloads later today (prob without a creditfile, i will do that later this week)


Btw Kerilk, adding masked textures really is a big problem, unless i am doing something completelly wrong, it cannot be done


I will write you a mail later this week to explain what i all did try so far. But at this point, whatever i try, it won't work
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[DieHard SCWS]

I added the conversiontools to the downloads Turboman

http://www.celticwarriors.net/website/S3TC/S3TCToolsDownloads/S3TCToolsDownloads.htm

Look for S3TCext_Version_03.zip

That one enables you to convert the packages, i added some info below the downloads that you should read.
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[Turboman.]

wow, thanks for the conversion tool DieHard and Kerilk

is the description below all i need to know about converting textures? or are there any special commands that come with the program?

indeed like you mentioned i'm having slight problems with the fractal textures (fire, water, ice) after conversion from ut2004, i also couldnt create them either in ut2004, seems that epic dropped fractal textures out of unreal engine 2 and 3, probably have to recreate them after converting back to unreal in that case

[Kerilkkorn]

Yes the new editor discards a lot of precious information, and it is a pain in th a** to reproduce by hand afterward(like draw scale).
That's why I consider using this tool only for creating new packages, or redoing simple ones.

For the rest I might come up with an ad hoc prog if we cannot find anything else cleaner..... But that means lot of time and I don't have that much for the moment....

But maybe we won't need to do this I can't tell for the moment depends on lots of parameters I have no control over.

Anyway don't worry we'll come up with a solution.

[Turboman.]

updated it with another test version, unfortunately this one also gives version mismatches online, it would be nice if a fix could be found for this

changes are:
i adjusted the color/contrast a bit of the planet texture to match the haze textures a bit better in the jwsky

i also recreated the landmasses in higher resolution and added about 50% more clouds, the original was very cloudy and i would like it to be close to the original.

i didnt update the lensflare and fractal textures, i dont really see the use for it since they arent really textures and higher resolution wont matter.

download link:
http://intranet.connectics.nl/Turbo/Shared%20Documents/Unreal/files/newSpaceFX.zip

[DieHard SCWS]

Turbo, in case you have finished new textures that have an exact match for the old textures, you can sent them, than ill add those to the database.


In that case i would like the original PSD file including all layers, unless its a flat rendered version.


Though i have not created the pages for that package yet, ill hope to do that next week, so yours can be added.
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[Turboman.]

its actually a flat rendered bitmap image, the psa/bmp ones were quite big so i took the .dds ones from the texture tool you gave me (saves 20mb zipped without quality loss):

http://intranet.connectics.nl/Turbo/Shared%20Documents/Unreal/files/spacefxdds.zip

like i said the nebula still needs a better replacement since the one now totally doesnt match it, the original is quite blurry and smooth so i guess a real high resolution isnt exactly necessary, although it can take huge advantage of the 24-bit truecolor capabilities.

[Turboman.]

i would like to know what people think of it so i can consider doing a final version, ps: diehard did you get those files?

also do we also work on modifying the regular s3tc packages? i noticed there are quite a few bad textures in various packages (mine.utx, starship.utx) which i would like to get my hands on and fix after this is done

[DieHard SCWS]

Yes i downloaded the file, but i have had no chance yet to study them, i was do that as soon as possible.



At this point if i post downloadable single textures than i use a PSD file packed together with a creditfile into a zipfile, regardless if theres only one layer or more layers and yes or no Alpha channels. In this way everyone who wants to work on them will have all possibilities to get the most out of the textures


Here are two downloads that give a good representation of the zipfile itself and the PSD file it contains:


http://www.celticwarriors.net/Downloads/S3TCTextures/PlayrShp/PanelS3TC/A1.zip

http://www.celticwarriors.net/Downloads/S3TCTextures/PlayrShp/LightS3TC/Lights9d.zip



Further i make use of 3 creditfiles:

Epic: containing only textures made by Epic
Diehard: containing only textures made by Me (or read Turboman)
Epic/Diehard: containing textures made by both Epic and me.

The creditfiles always have the same name as the texture itself.

Lights9d.zip contains Lights9d.PSD and Lights9d.txt



I would apreciate it, if everyone would use the same system, because if i go offer those too than i will have to convert them myself. I like to see that those things are lined up where ever they come from



The done textures, i always save as Targa files (tga), those are fully compatible with UT2003 and UT2004. While adding them to a package i have them saved as either DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5. Both UT version support that function.


An overview:

Texture itself: PSD file
Zipfile: PSD file and txt file
Done, to be added texture: Targa file (tga)
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[Turboman.]

you can now consider the spacefx.utx package almost complete, the only thing that remains is a new nebula texture that matches the original and ofcourse a compatibility fix (which i need an explaination for the hex editor for  :'( ).

i've now started working on a few replacements on playrshp.utx incase nobody done that yet, i'm fixing a few bad replacements and doing a few other missing, i will post some shots later if i get the time, for this one i'll include the psd files as diehard requested.

diehard, it might be usefull to have some kind of plan on the forum or website so we can have a better idea on who's replacing what to prevent two people doing the same package

[DieHard SCWS]

Eeerm i agree on that last part lol


I have been working on the Starship textures before, but i only made a few and i made some corrections on excisting textures.


Also some textures corelate to the PlayrShip package i am working on (Signs, Panel and Deco groups) and the Mask group than corelates with the DecayedS and Mine group i have been working on (both unfinished though).


But i don't think there is a real problem if you would work on the textures in that package, pfff lol difficult to explain but ill try anyway


I found out that most of the packages basically are built with only 4 to 6 textures to begin with. The difficult part in that is; to find out which ones are in which texteure used, together with that, what textures do line up with textures in other groups or even other packages. That last is incredible important to know, to prevent sudden surprices when you look at them ingame and see two different bases which obviously should have the same base.


If you go work on those textures in Starship is fine with me , but you need to find the corelating texturebases and create them first.


This is needed for two things: for you if you go create the textures, but also for me or others if i am going to make some of them (if you don't do them all)

This in effect means, if you go make them in 3Dstudio, and i dunno if that works on how you create them :-/ You need to create all bases first and make them available (as zipped PSD file ), than you you should go combine them in 3Dstudio where needed.


But as said i dunno if that is a workable way for you (and since you want to start with that package, it should be workable for you !! ), you need to tell if such thing is possible.


Another thing is, if you work on them, you should have the database i have now for yourself, its still incomplete, but it covers prob 85 % of all Unreal textures (all animated, wet and wave stuff have not been done yet).


I need to find a way so you can download them all (5 to 6 Gigabyte) , and which one you need.


But as i already told in a mail to Hyper, most of the StarShip textures are highly complicated lol.


But let me know what groups or textures you wanna go work on, so i have an idea. In general you can follow my work in the database i created, if i have a preversion i in general add it to the database already, in effect the database was created as a hugh notepad for myself.
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[DieHard SCWS]

Oh and sent me all your finished work as PSD Files, Targa (read story above:) from your SkyCity package so i can add it with your name and credits and pictures to the database.

You can sent it to submit--take this part out--@celticwarriors.net

That mail helds up to 100 MB, but do split them up a bit, that won't harm
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[Turboman.]

actually i'm working on playrshp.utx, which is my second package after spacefx.utx

while a few textures are amazing it seems that some textures are nothing more then the old 128x128 ones ran thru a bump filter, it doesnt have much more effect then a detailtexture, also textures that match eachother dont match eachother anymore, lets say two textures that are supposed to form one big whole are both created from a different source and look totally different.

dont worry, for (most of) these textures i'll simply use photoshop, 3dsmax is mainly for the more complicated textures with lots of complex shapes involved (tubes, rock, planets, etc).

will post development pics soon

wow my pc totally doesnt like me creating textures, its now giving a virtual memory error on creating and it nearly freaks out during a simple render (cant help it but freaking windows xp already consumes 400mb ram)

[Turboman.]

oh, and one more question, do you want the .psd file with multiple layers or do you want them merged into one flat image? because i think a flat image saves alot of the filesize.

[Hyper]

For the peace of mind of the texture makers:

How can the GUID be changed using a hex editor, or any other way to solve the online version conflicts on the package?

[Turboman.]

For the peace of mind of the texture makers:

How can the GUID be changed using a hex editor, or any other way to solve the online version conflicts on the package?

unfortunately we dont know it either, the only thing we know is that it involves some hex editing.

kerlik said its fairly simple to do, although we havent heard from him about it for awhile.

[DieHard SCWS]

oh, and one more question, do you want the .psd file with multiple layers or do you want them merged into one flat image? because i think a flat image saves alot of the filesize.

BIG NO, don't flatten them, if its all in the development stage, i don't care at all about filesize. Epic already flattened their textures, which is one of the reasons for this project lol. Lets not do that again


Also if somone wants to make a map and adds stuff to the textures, than its possible to merge whatever they wanna make between the layers And therefore the quality of such texture will be allot higher quality than just adding it on top of a flat texture


Sent in your complete work with all the layers intact.
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