Specular maps and Defuse maps

As far as I know, SR4 uses 3 texture files; diffuse, normals and specular maps, but only some things actually use specular maps. Whether you can change that or not I don't know.

Diffuse is your texture file, where you generally design the look and feel of the texture, add colours and so forth.
Normal is your lighting file, that simulates the appearance of concave and convex surfaces, bumps etc. (it's the funky looking purple texture).
If it does use specular maps, then they would control exactly how much light a surface will reflect (how shiny it will be).

I found a nice tutorial from YouTube on how to work with Saints Row 3 normal maps (with Photoshop); the same more or less applies to Saints Row 4 it seems.
It doesn't tell you how to do good normal maps, though, as I think that's something that comes from experience, just like all graphic work really. (could also probably find a tutorial or two on hints and tips for normals on Google).
 
Thank you very much for replying it seems no one else is botherd to help :D, but saldy Iv seen this vid ages ago and a few ones on creating defuse maps and specular, I know the basics its just im hoping to learn more as iv seen specular and defuse used to some quite extreames in SRIV, and im having few ishues with light reflecting off my weapons to much in game but thers no excesive highlight on my specular :(
These vids helped me out alot, just wish that we had the tools to view the Saints row textures on the mesh in real time

 
Well, I'm rather new to the texture scene myself, so I thought if I can help anyone else out with the basics that I know so far, then why not :)

And thanks for linking those videos, by the way.

There has to be something going on for them to be excessively reflective, though. Why don't you upload a sample of some of your textures that you're having problems with? Might give people an incentive to take a gander; someone with a lot more experience could probably then tell you exactly where you're going wrong.
 
its not worrys I found them helpfull so I thought id add them in here, its just so potchy not being able to view the texture in real time, as a starting point I try to make my specular about 30-50% brighter than my defuse map, iv gota get the hang of using them proper tho

and I will try and post some images later with guns im having problems with ill edit this post with them its just matter of finding time to convert the dds and get an ingame image of the textures that im having specular problems with

and thank you for your help I realy apreshate it
 
IIRC, the game makes use of shaders extensively. Things like the shiny/oiled character skins are all shader based. I wouldn't be surprised if shaders mostly took over (if not entirely) the job a spec map would have done.

Of course this is all based off what I think I remember seeing posted once and the fact I've NEVER extracted a spec map from the several dozen textures I've unpacked.
 
NopeD said:
IIRC, the game makes use of shaders extensively. Things like the shiny/oiled character skins are all shader based. I wouldn't be surprised if shaders mostly took over (if not entirely) the job a spec map would have done.

Of course this is all based off what I think I remember seeing posted once and the fact I've NEVER extracted a spec map from the several dozen textures I've unpacked.
Click to expand...
I didnt understand the last part of that sorry are you quoting somone else or have you not seen a spec map :S

and were talking about weapon retexture mainly

atm iv got problem I dont think its coming from my spec map tho in store weapons looks nice gold then inopen world detail is washed out when light hits it iv changed my spec map levels taken highlights down made no diffrence but this weapon has a glow texture so im thinking it could be that but the weapon is not glowing :')
 
They're basically saying that of all the textures they've worked on, they have yet to see a specular map be associated with a texture set (more or less meaning specular maps are almost non-existent in the game files).

So consider the fact that models vary in how reflective they are, but specular maps aren't there, then come to the conclusion that if there's no specular map to be found, but the model has varying levels of reflectivity, then it must be something else that's doing it; thus believing that shaders are responsible.

Edit: I had the problem with washed out colours actually, with everything in general, whilst using Saints Row 4: Inauguration Station and it seems that Post-Processing was the culprit for the washed out appearance. Maybe you could try turning that off to see what happens?
 
Never looked at the Saint's Row formats, but modding other games here's what I've found. Specularity maps can be pulled from lots of places. Fallout 3, which used the DDS format, pulled it from a channel in the normal map. It's greyscale so very easy to include in another image file without bloating things up too much. Specularity can be hidden/compiled within just about any shader, since it's so simple. Those videos above do a very good job explaining what they are, but someone who has played with them in SR3 or 4 will have to explain how they're implemented here.

For making normal maps, there is a plugin for photoshop on the nVidia site. https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top