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Creating PBR (Physically Based Rendering), POM (Paralax Occlusion Map)Textures


WrinkleysRule

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  • Wrinkley

With the advent of FS22 and its new texture regime I thought I would post this as a way of creating all the necessary image textures from a diffuse image (Height, Normal, Metallic, Smoothness, Edge, AO and Specular) that will (maybe) be required.
For this I am using a FREE texture programme called Materialize available here http://boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/

The programm allows the creation of PBR (Physically Based Rendering) POM (Paralax Occlusion Map) and Seamless texture's from a suitable image and has many editing functions so many in fact that I have put a couple of youtube links at the end should you wish to learn more about the programme, there are several other good video's available on youtube as well.
Unfortunately it does not open/save dds fies but only accepts/saves in the following formats BMP, JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF and as GE accepts the PNG format it is best to set that as default by opening the Settings tab in the bottom right of the interface also while there set the Normal Map Style to Maya Style.

The base image is one I took of some shingle on a little seaside trip recently and converted to seamless texture

Below is an  example, using the base image, of what can be achieved using the various types of image maps to create PBR/ POM  textures and might help to understand the process and result
In creating the following examples.

This first image is of the base image on a cube with no enhancements

YN4GnDJ.jpg


Second is just with Height map created and applied (Show Full Material applied)

qg1Kclk.jpg

Third is with a Normal Map created and both Height and Normal maps applied (Show Full Material applied)T0xaBzc.jpg

Fourth is with the Height Map removed and just the Normal map applied to give an indication of the difference a height map can make -- which is the case for most textures currently in FS19, also the FS19 terrain textures seem to use the height map in the alpha layer of the normal map to creat a PBR/POM image, downside of this method is the image needs to be saved as a DTX5 so is twice the bit size of a normal DXT1 image for the same image size (ie 512 512 DXT5 -5k--- 512 512 DXT1- 2.5k) so using more texture memory.

For FS22 diffuse and normal maps, the size is 1024 x 1024 and consist of four diferrent textures for each main texture area i.e CONCRETE comprisies of  concrete01,concrete02,concrete03,conctere04 each one slightly different to alleviate any problems with repeat patterns hence they also require four different normal maps

Diffuse textures are basically the same as for FS19 but first have to be saved as a png with separate alpha layer before converting to the Custom BC7 format using the GIANTS Texture Tool v9.0.0 (Farming Simulator 22  (log in required for downloads)

Normal maps also have to be first saved as a png file with a separate alpha layer and then converted to the custom BC7 format using the Texture Tool.

Basic settings for the normal map channels in FS22 are,  Red channel--Black (adjust the brightness if water/puddle effect required), Green Channel -- Height map (brightness/contrast increased by 50%), Blue Channel-- White, Alpha Channel --Height map, see the note at the end of the tutorial for a simple method.

 

u6hiODv.png

Fifth is with all maps created and applied Height,Diffuse,Metallic,Smoothness, Edge and AO (Show Full Material applied)

TgzU54D.jpg

The following image illustrates what happens if Paralax Displacement is overdone in this case increased from 0.5 to 2

71JwYvv.jpg

Finally this is the material in GE using the created Normal Map and a Specular map created using Smoothness,AO, Edge and Height maps in the relevant Specular Map channels---- Diffuse/Normal saved as DXT5 Specular as DXT1 with height map added to normal alpha channel4kz6Ezc.jpg

As this programme has many editing functions for each image and also for final set up Post Proces (Bloom/Depth of field etc) getting the best results will require some experimentation with all the settings at first, so viewing the video's linked at the bottom along with the tutorial video's on the Materialize site is a must to understand all of the programmes capabilities.

A quick intro to some of the operations

P -- paste from Clipboard
C -- copy to clipboard
O -- open file
S -- Save file
Show Full Material when selected show the combined effect of all the currently created images
The Property Map options in the Savings Options in the top right of the screens allow you to select which maps you want to select to create your specular map

A Height map must be created first and each image is dependant on the previous one so if for example after creating all the images you redo the Metallic map you will have to recreate the maps following that one to get the correct result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhLnl_-4RY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHlZ1_9-TDE

Note:

Normal Maps for terrain textures in FS19/22

Here is one method that can be used to create the Normal Maps for the terrain images
Images for FS19 must be 512 x 512 images for FS22 1024 x1024
Save the Height Map you created in Materialize and open it in Photoshop (or any image editor that allows display/editing of Colour/Alpha Channels)
Open an exsisting terrain normal map in Photoshop, concrete01_normal is a good one to use as it already has the red channel black and blue channel white plus the Alpha Channel
Copy paste the Height Map image into the Alpha andGreen Channels of the concrete01_normal image
With only the Green Channel selected increase Brightness and contrast by 50%
Ensure the Alpha Channel is deselected and image is selected as RGB and rename and save as DXT5 (FS19)
Should you wish a reflection either increase the brightness of the Red Channel which will give you reflection over all your texture or copy paste your Alpha Channel image to the Red Channel and adjust brightness to suit,  this wil give a more targeted reflection

You can of course create the normal map in the normal way and adjust the channel brightness/texture colour accordingly, sometimes greater definition can be achieved by adjusting the contrast of the blue channel but red always has to be black unless requiring a reflection
For FS22 normal images the image has to be first saved as a png with a separate alpha layer then converted to BC7 using the Giants Texture tool GIANTS Texture Tool v9.0.0 (Farming Simulator 22  (log in required for downloads)


You can also create a simulated height map by changing your custom terrain image mode to greyscale, reduce contrast by 50% and add a Gaussian blur with a radius of 1 and use that instead of the Height Map in the above method.


Finally I know there are programmes out there that will probably do all this automatically but not everyone can get the Student freebie version or afford the exhorbitant subscriptions so for me FREE is best and yes even the photoshop version I use is a free legacy version (CS2) (available here https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html) which together with the free Nvidia dds plugins and the Stand alone Nvidia Texture tool is quite adequate for what I need regarding image creation/editing for Farming Simulator.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • Wrinkley

Here is another example of what can be achieved using the correct texture shaders

Unfortunately the way the textures are dealt with currently in FS19 (and it appears that FS22 will use the same format ) you get a stretching of the texture at high bump levels as shown in the following image
image factsheet from FS22

aVEXsZL.png

The stretching could be passed of as slicing like the following image but it still doesn't look qiute right and I hope they correct it in the final version of FS22.

 

TfqykRb.jpg

The following has been created from the acre_plantedRow texture from the ground_diffuse array in FS19 and shows how with the right combination of images and shader realistic texture can be created.

CYkQfPQ.png

Q3dUhfw.png

In the attached zip file are all the textures created in Materialize so you can experiment for yourselves from a known base just unzip and open them in the relevant slots in Materialize,  also in the zip is an i3d Plane with a lighter acre_plantedRow texture (for better definition) and an acre_Planted_Normal_2 created by using the following format (roughly the same as in FS19) so you can see/experiment with different settings in Giants Editor.
 
Red Channel -- normal map red channel from Materialize,
Green channel -- edge texture from Materialize,
Blue channel filled with white
Alpha channel -- Height texture from Materialize

It seems the maximum Bump Depth appears to be 2 before stretching occurs in all cases where the height map is used in the Alpha channel of the normal map.

acre_PlantedRow_textures.zip

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  • 5 months later...

hi Wrinkley

 

i have a qustion, i want use this tool for fs22 buldings texture. so my problem is the specular. i thought i could use the output of ProbertyMAp options for the specular..... but it looks more blue then the neongreeen from giants... how do you make the specular for buldingtextures ?

 

thanks a lot

 

cheers Ben

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  • Wrinkley

You have to set the R,G,B channels to their correct setting for a specular map

Red Channel  -- Smoothness

Green Channel -- Ambient Occ

Blue Channel -- Metallic

and in the Settings tab select Set Default Property Map Channels

Once set all that is required,  once the various Maps are set up is to select the Save Property Map tab

NOTE: If you want a higher definition AO channel then select the AO + Edge option
 

"but it looks more blue then the neongreeen from giants"

This is because you have set up the maps incorrectly specifically the Metallic Map try decreasing the Final Contrast and Final Bias sliders.

Once you have the Metallic Map set you should be able to just create the Smoothness, Edge, and AO maps without having to do any adjustments (or very little)

The 'Show Full Material Tab' when used after each Map setting will enable you to see the results of the settings so you can adjust as necessary.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Wrinkley

There are video tutorials on how to use the Materialize programme  (linked in the tutorial) but I have not heard of any for creating the Giants Editor versions.

Try using Gimp (or the Photoshop Legacy edition linked in the tutorial) as far as I know Paint.net does not save images as greyscale, only as indexed colour which can cause problems.

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  • Wrinkley

Don't know if there is a specific name for it just to confirm we are thinking of the same thing are you refering to this image

 

default_diffuse.dds

The main problem (apart from the index colour problem) I  found with paint.net (which is why I seldom use it), you can't easily modify the rgba channels of any texture which is a must if adjusting any alpha layer/specular channel or normal map setup.

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that image may be the same but just highlighted in a different format?  when looking at the ground texture files in the FS main folder. they look like an image until you click on them and then the image is hidden behind the little squares.  or that's how they looked using paint.net etc.  i'm now just getting the hang of the layers in Gimp as have never used it before..  i was wondering what effects the layers have to make what would be an image look like the checkers board. my first attempt of creating a ground texture looked really dark almost black when the sun was not directly on it...dirtDry01_diffuse.dds    iv included an image from the main FS folder,  i cant get my  diffuse and height layer to look the same..

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  • Wrinkley

I think I've got what you are refering to with checkaboard,

The image shown in paint.net is the texture with the alpha layer making parts of it transparent.

Open the image in Gimp and go to the Channels tab (top Right and deselect the Alpha layer your texture should now be normal.

If you now reselect the alpha layer and deselect the red/blue/channels you should then see a black and white image, the white parts are the transparent area of the image (which allows you to see the checkaboard) the black parts show the image.

When creating a normal map for the ground textures the rgba channel set up  are different to a normal (say building) texture see the tutorial for reference.

Diffuse and height are not the same diffuse is colur height is black and white, white is the high point.

To create a basic ground texture in Materialize simply import your diffuse and use the default settings for height and normal metallic should be adjusted to near enough black smoothness/edge/AO can be set using default values.

 

 

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i made just the one of each diffuse and Normal images using Gimp and added that texture to my map and this is the result. i'm pleased how it looks, can you see anything wrong with it? if i rotate the image 90 degrees 3 times and add the other 3 sets will that give the edge a better blend or will it just look  the same? 

stonetest.png

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  • Wrinkley

Looks good.

If you look at the ingame textures all 4 textures are slightly different and have different Alpha layers /normal maps etc, this is to ensure you don't get a pattern effect when looking in the distance.

However if your image doesn't show a pattern when painted over a large area, you can now in the latest update just use 1 image for a ground texture ( previous versions of FS22 would not allow less than four images for a ground Texture, previous versions of the game, fs19/15/13 did not have this problem)

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i'll try a rotate of 90 and see if it has any effect, what i some times do to achieve  a random look is combine 4 different textures in the layer panel so will try this with some dirt and grass added. by the time i'm finished my map will be over the 1GB at this rate lol 🙂  thanks for all the help  @ WrinklysRule  

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