(Suggestion) The Ability To Override Normal Maps?

[Goabea]

Is there a chance that in the future, we can make smybols that override the normal maps of clothing? I know ALOT of people who would love this as a feature.
ALot of people (Including myself) Like to make new clothing out of the current clothing. 
Low Ride Jeans, Extended Shirts, New Shoes, etc etc.

For a quick crash course on what a "Normal Map" it.
 

Quote

A normal map is an image texture mapped to the surface of a model, similar to regular colour textures, however each pixel in the texture of the normal map (called a texel) represents a deviation in surface normal direction away from the “true” surface normal of the flat (or smooth interpolated) polygon.

Here is an example of what effects we might be able to achieve with it.










These are some very rushed photoshops. But you get the idea of what I mean, right?
 

Edited June 21, 2018 by NotGoabea

[Farquaad]

I think is a great idea just wonder if it is possible.

[Goabea]

1 minute ago, Kaplani said:

I think is a great idea just wonder if it is possible.

I think it might be possible. Since we already edit the texture of the clothing when we apply a symbol, why not be able to do the same with a normal map?

[ItzKeppe]

This would be hella helpful and would open up a whole world of possibilities and new design choices

+1

[Gro]

Yes.

[Bornstellar]

I hope that the engine upgrade will bring possibilities like this into the game. It'll definitely give creators more flexibility when it comes to designs.

[Kazma]

While this idea sounds awesome, I'm not sure how apb in its current form might deal with that, but one thing that could  be light weight and pretty nifty would be the ability to modify materials.
Example; take the shiny pants material from the male/female sweat track pants, and give the player the option to make it jeans material, leather, sparkle, etc. 

Edited June 21, 2018 by Kazma

[Goabea]

8 minutes ago, Kazma said:

While this idea sounds awesome, I'm not sure how apb in its current form might deal with that, but one thing that could  be light weight and pretty nifty would be the ability to modify materials.
Example; take the shiny pants material from the male/female sweat track pants, and give the player the option to make it jeans material, leather, sparkle, etc. 

We could use that on cars as well. Remove the default shine and add matte paint for example, right?

[CookiePuss]

1 minute ago, NotGoabea said:

We could use that on cars as well. Remove the default shine and add matte paint for example, right?

Didnt they have to make another set of parts for the matte on the growl?

 

I wish I knew more about this stuff,  but I dont so Ill just say this is a really cool idea. 

[Goabea]

Just now, CookiePuss said:

Didnt they have to make another set of parts for the matte on the growl?

 

I wish I knew more about this stuff,  but I dont so Ill just say this is a really cool idea. 

Matter-a-fact they did! I rememeber this very clearly. 

[Zealocke]

I think you should make the title of your thread a liiiitle more precise...

[Dopefish]

This would be a nice feature, but would double the amount of textures needed to be cached for each player that enters a district, for something that might see little to no use.

[Goabea]

5 minutes ago, Zealocke said:

I think you should make the title of your thread a liiiitle more precise...

How so?

[Zealocke]

You know by typing "maps of clothing" instead of just "maps"?

I thought you wanted to change financial or something xD

[Sadira]

1 minute ago, Zealocke said:

You know by typing "maps of clothing" instead of just "maps"?

I thought you wanted to change financial or something xD

But when you're discussing 3D pipeline, it's literally called 'normal maps'.

 

Anyways, this would be pretty neat-o. Would make tons of outfits look better, though I feel like this might be something actually very complicated to implement. Perhaps in the future?

[Zealocke]

Just now, Sadira said:

But when you're discussing 3D pipeline, it's literally called 'normal maps'.

 

Anyways, this would be pretty neat-o. Would make tons of outfits look better, though I feel like this might be something actually very complicated to implement. Perhaps in the future?

i was just saying

This game really needs a fashion contest

[Goabea]

4 minutes ago, Zealocke said:

You know by typing "maps of clothing" instead of just "maps"?

I thought you wanted to change financial or something xD

But it could be applied to cars as well. I'm just a lazy shit and did not photoshop cars.

[Goabea]

17 minutes ago, Dopefish said:

This would be a nice feature, but would double the amount of textures needed to be cached for each player that enters a district, for something that might see little to no use.

Not exactly, since normal maps are just a textured on layer. It'll just be editing the texture. Or at least i hope it would

[Dopefish]

1 minute ago, NotGoabea said:

Not exactly, since normal maps are just a textured on layer. It'll just be editing the texture. Or at least i hope it would

[SandyBitch]

Wrong section, just saying, moved it into the dumpster, looks meh anyways,

 

kbai

[Clandestine]

and while we are at it would be also cool to chose cloth material. cotton, leather etc

[JenzAmaka]

As usual, it is possible but normal map editing would be absolutely pain in the patootie to make it work. They would need to program a whole new code for simply editing normal maps, and creating a whole new customization tool. Currently the way game loads normal maps is the character skin and then all the clothing you wear which all of the normal data is already stored in your installed APB, but if you add normal map customization it would need to load the same way it does with Diffuse texture(the one with colors and everything) which would basically increase load time for characters almost twice.

 

Basically they'll never do it, and also because people can make very weird designs that would make no sense.

 

Although what they can do is specular editing, but that would allow players to make the most ridiculous designs ever like chrome people or chrome t-shirts.

 

Edited June 21, 2018 by JenzAmaka

[weissraider]

I love this idea. It truly would upgrade the designer. 

[Trivirium]

5 minutes ago, JenzAmaka said:

As usual, it is possible but normal map editing would be absolutely pain in the patootie to make it work. They would need to program a whole new code for simply editing normal maps, and creating a whole new customization tool. Currently the way game loads normal maps is the character skin and then all the clothing you wear which all of the normal data is already stored in your installed APB, but if you add normal map customization it would need to load the same way it does with Diffuse texture(the one with colors and everything) which would basically increase load time for characters almost twice.

 

Basically they'll never do it, and also because people can make very weird designs that would make no sense.

 

Although what they can do is specular editing, but that would allow players to make the most ridiculous designs ever like chrome people or chrome t-shirts.

 

Not only that but what would become of limitations to symbol capacity or the sorts? There would be so much involved in making a working system that's fully functional without taking a hit on preformance that it just wouldn't be feasible. Honestly, a racing dist would be more likely to happen than a system of this size. Both of which will most likely never happen at all but hey, one can hope.

 

I just think that the easier and probabily safer bet is to just add updated clothing styles, or more of. Just blank ones even, no need to make up premades for contacts and unlock requirements. I'd just be happy with more free-to-play clothing added. 

 

AND I know half of this game is looking as good as possible while kicking patootie but like comeon, The symbol cap for non-premium is only like 10 or something, that's pretty low. And not to meantion almost 90% of what vets wear are usually premium clothing items that come in packs. 

 

Ya'll need to make more new, and free things if anything. This is coming from someone who has had over 3K days prem. So I mean, I have prem but for those who don't it's a hard knock life fam.

[Nite]

My biggest concern with this idea is - if the players have almost all they need (short of specular channel editing) to create whole new articles of clothing, what does the dev team sell to us then?