Normal Maps for CBBE/CHSBHC

[cefwyn]

Since the last upload of my WIP normal maps I've been working on how to get the most detail out of them as well as doing some anatomy study to actually make things more realistic. To anyone who wonders why I bother, with a high detail normal map you can make the character skin look realistic while only having a really basic diffuse texture which allows you to compress the diffuse texture to increase performance and reduce compression errors because of a simpler color palette. Check out these screenshots!

 

CHSBHC:

 

 

Ignore the lines under the right breast and armpit as that is Skyrim's typical twitchy shading.

 

 

The feet still need some work, and I'm still having trouble modifying the hand mesh to fit seamlessly with the CHSBHC body so I've not made normal maps for the hands.

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

SHD(4096)

 

Since not everyone likes muscles and it doesn't make much sense for a mage type character to be very muscular I've created a normal map sans the muscular abs.

 

 

 

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

SHD(4096)

 

CBBE 3:

 

* NEW: Extremely muscular normal map mark 2. I've smoothed out the ass and thighs a bit and now it fits the CBBE body mesh far better.

 

 

OLD:

NEW:

 

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

SHD(4096)

 

It doesn't really look right without a more muscular mesh so as soon as I can figure out how I plan on releasing the mesh alterations I made as an extension of Caliente's BodySlider program to include a muscle slider, but there's no telling how long that will be.

 

* Tone body normal map. I think this one looks quite nice and doesn't assume your character runs through the wilderness swinging a battle axe but is still in good shape just from a life in a harsh environment.

 

 

 

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

SHD(4096)

 

Hand Normals! The details aren't finished but with this normal map you won't get a seam at the wrist (At least not one caused by the normal map being different). You can check out the affects of the new maps in the new image for the muscular map.

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

 

* Smooth Normals: I've smoothed out the muscles but kept the rest of the extra detail.

 

Skyrim Vanilla(1024)

HD(2048)

SHD(4096)

 

* Head Normals: I've finally got around to sculpting details back into the head mesh. This is definitely a work in progress as it's kind of too smooth and could give the character a bit of a mannequin look, but it's better than the upscaled and blurred normal maps available on the nexus. I think the 512x512 is even better quality than the vanilla map!

NOTE: In order to make the normal map show up on all characters you want it to show up for you'll need to place it in character/female/, character/bretonfemale/, character/imperialfemale/, character/redguardfemale/, and/or whichever ones you want to use it for.

 

Skyrim Vanilla(512)

HD(1024)

SHD(2048)

 

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

[Blackbryre]

These look great - I'll give 'em a try.

[Siouliusn]

I'll try it too et post some screen!

Thanks for that.

A bit too muscular for my type character, but It goes very well with more "heavy fighter type"

[cefwyn]

There you go, I've uploaded a new map. Now you can have a normal map more like the original CBBE map but significantly higher detail.

[Siouliusn]

Thanks for the new version, looks as cool as the first

(I'll keep on using the new one)

[Mana Yakushima]

Why isn't there an overall muscle definition? Looks a bit weird to just have ripped abs.

[cefwyn]

I've known plenty of women who just work on their abs, but besides that, I'm currently working on a full muscular body map. It's taking a while because: 1 I'm a perfectionist, and 2 I'm trying to get all the little details I can think of done before I start working on more muscles which is probably much less popular.

[Atreyu]

I'll try it too et post some screen!

Thanks for that.

A bit too muscular for my type character' date=' but It goes very well with more "heavy fighter type"

[img']http://i.imgur.com/P6PJRl.jpg[/img]

 

BOOBIES!! Y U NO UNCENSORED!?

[Mana Yakushima]

Ok, saw them ingame, look great. The line for the ribcage (below the breasts) looks a bit too prominent? It's not compatible with the v3 CBBE though :/

[cefwyn]

Yeah, I just found out about CBBE 3 this morning but I just finished a bodybuilder WIP for CBBE 3. The ribcage line is definitely too defined and I later decided it's a bit too high as well so that's changed on the mesh I'm currently working with. I'll release a smoother body normal map later in the week. I'll hopefully get something done when I get off work Tuesday. I won't be using the CHSBHC mesh anymore because the UV seams are pretty stretched while CBBE 3 is perfect except some weighting under the breasts which stretches the ribcage during animations.

[Mana Yakushima]

Oh, its updated XD. Just going from the pics atm, id soften the very muscular one, and moreso in the butt area. The last one looks nice though! Its a happy medium from the looks of it, i'll have to try it in-game.

 

edit: ah that last one looks great. Doesn't work with older v2 meshes though, time to open up paint!

[cefwyn]

Yeah, the visible nastiness caused by using CBBE 3 UV's with CBBE 2 armors and such is unfortunate, but I'm not going to support a compatibility version because I'm hoping the armors will be updated especially now that CBBE has physics. I'm pretty tired so I may or may not finish making the muscular normal map fit the model better. I'll be smoothing out the ass completely since the ass muscles look weird on the CBBE mesh, and then smoothing some of the other muscles so it doesn't look quite so much like I just sculpted a mesh using an anatomy book (which I did).

[Mana Yakushima]

Any hand normals?

[cefwyn]

Those are in the works. I keep getting distracted with other work.

[Mana Yakushima]

Ok cool, I can wait. You should upload these to nexus when you finish.

[cefwyn]

I've nearly finished the hand normals and I've started working on the head so I can ensure no noticeable seams anywhere. Unfortunately I work tomorrow and then I'll be on the "business trip from hell" for most of the week so if it's not uploaded tonight then it'll be a while.

[Guest]

They look really good! Thank you!

[cefwyn]

I've gone ahead and uploaded what I've got done for the hands as well as the new version of the muscular normal map I've had sitting on my HD for the last week. I can't seem to get rid of the seam at the neck completely because the head mesh doesn't match up perfectly with the neck of the CBBE 3 body.

[churibman]

Great work man! Definitely the best normals I've seen so far!

 

I'd like to know what normals you're using for the faces, because i'm using navetsea's, and there's a big seam in the neck. Also, are you planning to create one of your own???

[cefwyn]

Great work man! Definitely the best normals I've seen so far!

 

I'd like to know what normals you're using for the faces' date=' because i'm using navetsea's, and there's a big seam in the neck. Also, are you planning to create one of your own???

[/quote']

 

I'm using a mix of XCE's smoothed face normals and my own. I still have to model the ears and the rest of the detail that's missing from the head mesh so I've generated the normal map for a higher resolution version of the mesh to smooth out the neck area where it joins with the body and then in gimp I've combined XCE's normal map with what I generated much like Caliente's TexBlend program does. It pretty much eliminates the seam caused by the normal map but if you zoom in really close the body doesn't actually match up with the neck correctly so it'll never be perfect. I could upload my edited face normals but I was wanting to wait until I had time to finish modeling the head.

 

I've not had much free time and what little I've had I've been too tired to do much but hopefully I'll have something before too long.

[churibman]

Then i shall wait for you to do your magic. Thanks.

[An00bis]

I have a problem with this mod, there's some kind of texture error surrounding the pubic bone, near the parts where the legs connect to the body. It looks very weird, how can I fix this?

[cefwyn]

I have a problem with this mod' date=' there's some kind of texture error surrounding the pubic bone, near the parts where the legs connect to the body. It looks very weird, how can I fix this?

[/quote']

 

This either means your using the HD texture DLC without the fix mentioned towards the end of Caliente's CBBE thread, or your using my CBBE 3 normal map with a CBBE 2 mesh (most if not all the armor currently). If it's the first case then what your seeing is the vanilla HD normal map being used instead of mine, but if it's the latter case then the only thing you can really do is either replace the body part of the armor with the CBBE 3 mesh or bug the original armor creator until he/she does so. The issue with the armors is that CBBE 2's UV mapping was not all that well thought out so there was severe texture stretching along the seams of the mesh while CBBE 3's UV mapping is near perfect but when a CBBE 3 texture is used with a CBBE 2 armour (especially the skimpy ones) you get messed up texturing along the seams which is most noticeable at the hips. If it really bugs you I suggest using a CBBE 2 normal map until the armor has been updated (Think my CHSBHC normals would work). I am not supporting the CBBE 2 UV coordinates because it was near impossible, if not completely so, to do any real detail along the seams.

 

I was hoping to finish up my head normal map and release some other variations for the body as well as muscle sliders for calientes bodyslider program but I've been fighting the flu for the past two weeks and now that I finally have a weekend off work I'm going to spend most of it trying to get better. If I don't release something tomorrow, I will definitely have something by next weekend.

[slash197]

I've made a quick hackjob of your muscular normal map (they are awesome, but I'm not going to hold my breath on every mod getting updated to v3), to be more compatible with CBBE v2 meshes (CHSBHC in particular). This is my first try at really editing a normal map, so there is still a seam at the hips, but it's not as bad.

 

 

 

 

I could upload it if you're fine with it, and if anybody else wants it.

[cefwyn]

Hey that's pretty good! You can upload if you like, but I've got a three day weekend and I'm finally over my illness so I'll add having a look at merging the difference between the two uv maps and see if I can come up with anything better. I'm not really sure it's possible to completely remove the seam you have there because one of the major problems of the v2 uv map was a rather poor uv layout along that seam making it really hard to hide.