The latest update of ShaderMap brings improved normal to displacment conversion with additional controls for contrast and height. There are other new features as well including linear magnification on preview image controls, additional zoom controls, and a map control button to refresh source image…

ShaderMap 2 currently implements overlay and detail oriented methods (called pure rotation in SM2) for painting normals. I may do a write up of the SM2 blending modes and maths behind them in the future.

In the meantime here is a really great article I found on blending a detail normal map with a ba…

I'll just post what I wrote on the woody3d.com website, then I'll explain...

[color=#0066cc]"Woody3D was developed by Neil Kemp at Rendering Systems Inc. as an inexpensive solution for developers to bring fully animated trees and foliage to their applications and engines. Woody3D was discontinued in…

Each map in ShaderMap 2 is a plugin. The plugin is a Windows DLL with the file extension .smp. To create a map plugin you will need to download the ShaderMap 2 SDK. http://shadermap.com/downloads/ As of this tutorial I am using version 2.0.5. You will also need Visual Studio 2008 - 2010.

Once you ha…

A new version of ShaderMap 2 is now available for download. This version brings bug fixes, new features, and options.
Some of the new features include:

• Support for OBJ quads
  
• Lockable and savable source maps
  
• Optimized GPU usage
  
• Option to override tile types for source maps
  
• Option to set default geometry f…

ShaderMap 2 allows users to create materials using the ShaderMap 2 SDK. A material can use any map in the ShaderMap project or load external image files such as cube maps. The material also provides a user interface wtih associated HLSL constants. To get started let's look at the basic structure of…

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I last published anything. That's because I've been working my heart out for a full year on ShaderMap 2. I am really proud of what I've been able to accomplish on this project.

Here's a rundown of the new features available and if you want to learn more just foll…

[size="3"] woody3d.pause()

As it stands Woody still requires a couple more months of development to be ready for the next release. I'm really excited about all of the new features in the upcoming release but I've been developing Woody3D for about 3 years. That's a long time for a single developer to…

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Woody3D can create tree roots as shown above. There is a problem however, as it currently uses a very simple hierarchy for branch levels. It does not allow for more than one child per branch. This means you can add roots but not branches. That's a pretty boring tree.

Next version will supp…

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Above is a tree which uses spoke meshes for leaves (used imposter branches for leaves [see wire-frame render in comments]). Below is a tree which uses billboarded quads for leaves.



I'm thinking that mesh type leaves are the way forward. I'll keep support for billboards, they could be very…