(SOLVED) Unable to find and fix leak in my map

[henke37]

Given that a lot of people treat them as interchangeable, it's an easy mistake to make.

A material tells the game how to render a surface. It contains various parameters, such as reflexivity and yes, which textures to sample. Yes, plural, because a material can read from multiple textures. And that's ignoring the implicit lightmap texture that vrad compiles.

 

[Hosomi]

I recommend reading up on it sometime.
It usually has an image texture, as well as sometimes a bump map and lightmaps
Materials contain information like what it's made of (e.g. concrete, wood, glass) which then determines what decals to apply and what noise to make when shot and walked on.
It also handles things like opacity and self-illumination.

 

[Pocket]

But Valve refers to materials as textures in their own tools, so it's a bit like nitpicking over whether data is plural or a mass noun.

 

[Soilbleed]

It usually has an image texture, as well as sometimes a bump map and lightmaps

Normal maps and Specular maps - Most engines don't really use bump maps anymore and instead use Normals. Lightmaps are giant image files created during a level lighting bake - I think you're referring to Specular maps which determine how light interacts with the texture file.

 

[Pocket]

Isn't "bump map" just a generic catch-all term that includes normal maps, SSbumps, etc?

 

[Soilbleed]

Isn't "bump map" just a generic catch-all term that includes normal maps, SSbumps, etc?

There may be an umbrella term called "Bump Mapping" (I've personally never heard it used though). But there is a fundamental difference in how an engine interprets each map. Bump maps are greyscale images that only simulate height (great for pre-renders). Normal maps actually store the direction of the geometry's normals so when viewed in realtime create a more realistic look (which is why they are mostly used now in games).

I'm really bad at explaining (and at work Artists tend to just through a premade material our way) but this is a nifty article about what maps can make up a texture:

http://blog.digitaltutors.com/understanding-difference-texture-maps/

 

[Crash]

But Valve refers to materials as textures in their own tools, so it's a bit like nitpicking over whether data is plural or a mass noun.

Exactly this. It's not an issue that needs constant semantic clerification. It seems to be a pet peeve issue of @henke37's. The issue was solved in the thread, and now we've changed the topic of the thread to this same semantic talk because...?

 

[ics]

If the user is relatively new to hammer, the easiest route to fix leak is propably just to change a texture instead of trying to change the material setting within the vmt and add it in as custom texture.