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[DESPEREAUX]

Hi everybody! Here I was somehow carried away by modding Skyrim, I made my own modpack, well, I had to learn how to draw textures for it, and there the textures are a little more complicated than in IL-2 1946, they have masks and normal maps. Well, why all this, I got the idea to use it for IL-2 skins, and you can see the result in the examples below. The image becomes not flat but voluminous, it acquires relief. This effect can be used to improve textures for maps too.
Examples:
Old


New


Decided to share with you maybe someone will be useful.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/r5u87gbn0vd0cdl/Fw190A5_texture_template_K2.7z/file

Step 1. Find the Void of the desired aircraft, it is desirable that it has only a white rivet background, shadows, and technical elements. Whatever there is dirt, smudges, etc.
Step 2. Take this Void, make it black and white, make it the right size and contrast.
Step 3. Now using the right tools in different programs in different ways, I did it in Photoshop, "Filter - 3D - Create Normal Map", create a normal map. We do an inversion of the heights so that the convex parts are convex and not depressed.
Step 4. We take our normal map, convert it to black and white, and substitute it under the skin we want to improve.
Set the skinning mode for this normal map to "hard light".
Step 5. Correct the overlay, merge, and save in the desired format.
The example file is in the archive.
By the way, if someone is interested in my skyrim modpack, you can download it here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mBZ43QMWQiiqHyay928YdY-rveMxP-Gc?usp=drive_link

Thank you all for your attention!
Enjoy!

[Kopfdorfer]

This is quite interesting Despereaux,

Could you post in-game screenies of both skins side by side ?
It would be really informative to have the ingame comparison.

Thanks for your work.

Kopfdorfer

[DESPEREAUX]

This is quite interesting Despereaux,

Could you post in-game screenies of both skins side by side ?
It would be really informative to have the ingame comparison.

Thanks for your work.

Kopfdorfer

Indeed, I forgot to make an example in the game.

[DESPEREAUX]

Yes, it's noticeable in the game

[stanislao]

Interesting experiment, but perhaps as it appears in your examples it seems a bit excessive to me, the FW190 looks like it has been chewed ....

[Mick]

... yep, unfortunately, the final result has nothing to do with the real FW190A ... 



May be this effect could be best used for clouds, or even map textures ... 

[DESPEREAUX]

Interesting experiment, but perhaps as it appears in your examples it seems a bit excessive to me, the FW190 looks like it has been chewed ....

Yes, of course, the result is exaggerated, well, this is for clarity I wanted to show the very essence. Of course, the relief needs to be corrected, somewhere to make an inversion, somewhere to remove it altogether.

[Mick]

... for sure, because as is, the result looks like some sort of an inflatable aircaft ... 

[DESPEREAUX]

... yep, unfortunately, the final result has nothing to do with the real FW190A ... 

May be this effect could be best used for clouds, or even map textures ... 

Maybe FW is not a good example, but on the ailerons and tail you can still notice the relief. Perhaps this can be seen more clearly on bombers.

[DESPEREAUX]

... for sure, because as is, the result looks like some sort of an inflatable aircaft ... 

That's for sure 

[Shessi]

Nice one D!

A good deduction, and yes completely understand that the effect can be varied with different merge settings etc etc. 

Many thanks for posting the concept and instructions to do it...I'm off now to give it a go!

Cheers

Shessi

[DESPEREAUX]

Nice to hear! Wish you success
Best wishes