I've looked up on google about this and youtube and stuff and ect and and and and and and... well it appears to seem quite useless because I do this to no avail and find info that just isn't helpful. how do I make a final product meant for being placed in-game.
I use a plugin for gimp called Insane Bump to generate normal / specular maps form textures. Random video I found showing you: As for uv mapping, it depends on what modeling program you use. I suck at Blender so I cant help you with uv mapping using that. I use Sketchup and the SketchUV plugin, and you will need another program called roadkill to do the uv mapping. This video is what got me started. Hope this helps a little
Well I use blender /= but thanks for the mapping gimp plugin. Edit: I will use insane map for loads of stuff thanks, however I was looking for high poly normal mapping for cars in beamng.
You mean creating a normal map from a high poly version of the model? That is possible within Blender. Just UV map the model then hit bake Part 2 of this tutorial explains it quickly http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/06/30/normal_maps_blender_2_5/
I am confused.. I do what I am supposed to, than I select the low poly than shift-select the higher poly than follow the back steps and bammm... I get an error about no image or something similar. /=
To make a half decent UV map in under a minute in 3ds max just select the item, highlight all the pollys then select "UV unwrap". When thats done open the UV editor in the side panel and click flatten mapping from the dropdown menu. That should make a decent map, although not necessarily user friendly in design. For more complex items a UV map isn't as simple as just clicking a button. Its quite a skill and normal mapping is the same if not worse..