Hello, I noticed that many people are using the "norm_alphaspec_tangentbasis.FX " shader from Bond1 without really knowing how to use. In this tutorial I will teach you how to use it appropriately.
First of all, you should know that the shader works in a very particular way, in fact, it requires the use of a diffuse texture, a normal map and a specular map
which is a duplicate of normal map itself.
Another thing is that the specular map file is not a just a file [i]but it's stored in the normal map's alpha channel.[/I]
This tutorial have been made for DXTBmp, a very fast and simple to use tool, you can find it
here
Part I
We will start by assuming that your normal map and specular map are already created, open your normal map with DXTBmp, you will have to add an image in the alpha channel by clicking on the yellow folder icon with a cyan arrow.
Part II
Select your specular map and add it to the alpha channel, your texture is ready now, we have to import the DDS into DXT5 format, your saved file MUST be a DDS in DXT5 format, always.
Part III
Rename your texture with the _N suffix, ie. "Mytexture_N.DDS", the last step ( and the most important) is to create a duplicate of your newly created texture and replace the "_N" suffix by "_I", these are the textures ( in addition of the diffuse ) that the shader will load.
Obviously, don't forget to add the path to the texture and shader in your FPE file !
Conclusion
That's it, your entities should be way more nicer than before.
( see attached )
Excuse my grammar errors, I'm French.
