White Paper

Using
Normal Maps
In GTA San Andreas

2015
White Paper Using Normal Maps In San Andreas

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Requirements 4
3. Installing Normal Map plugin 5
4. Adapting your models to Normal Map Plugin 6
Importing normal map textures into TXD archive 6
Attaching normal maps to DFF files with nm_matbuild tool 6
Attaching normal maps to DFF files with MatFx tool 8
Normal maps for player model 10
6. Normal Map Plugin settings 11
General 11
Ambient 11
Directional 11
 1. Introduction
NormalMap is an .ASI plugin for GTA San Andreas (named as
normalmap_byDK.asi) which gives an ability for modmakers to use normal
maps with their models.

Normal Map Plugin 3

White Paper Using Normal Maps In San Andreas

2. Requirements
Normal Map Plugin requires GTA San Andreas with 1.0 US executable.
Also, for loading .ASI plugins you need to have an ASI Loader installed for your
game. It is recommended to use Silents ASI Loader.
3. Installing Normal Map plugin
An installation process is pretty simple. Just copy following items to your GTA SA
folder:
normalmap_byDK.asi a plugin itself
normalmap_byDK.ini configuration file for plugin
normalmap_player folder for player model normal maps (empty by default)

Notice the plugin can be launched even without additiona files. If the .ini file is
not presented, a plugin will load default settings. And if a folder
(normalmap_players) is not exist, it just means the plugin wont load any
normal maps for player model.

You can also install a plugin into GTA SA\scripts folder.

Normal Map Plugin 5

Adapting your models to Normal Map Plugin

4. Adapting your models to Normal Map

Plugin
The process of adapting your models can be divided into two processes:
importing normal map textures into txd archive
attaching normal maps to materials in dff model
And also, there are two ways to attach normal maps to dff mode:
using nm_matbuild tool
using MatFx tool
You must also know that Normal Map Plugin gives you an option to attach
reflection map to material.

Attaching Normal Map to material means that material will lose such settings as
specular and environment map (used for vehicle models in San Andreas). Also,
its impossible to combine Normal Map with MatFX effects.

If a geometry uses 2 UV sets (or more) and you attach normal map to its material,
you could see wrong results in a game. Thus nm_matbuild tool deletes additional
UV sets for geometry and leaves only one (first) set.

Adapted models will work normally on a game without Normal Map Plugin
installed.

Importing normal map textures into TXD archive

It is recommended to use DDS2TXD plugin to generate TXD archives.
In a usual way, use DXT1/no alpha for textures without an alpha channel and
DXT5/interpolated alpha for textures with an alpha channel.
There are no any restrictions about normal map texture names inside TXD. But
in practing of game development such suffixes as _n or _norm are often used
for normal map names (for example, tree_n). Also, remember texture names
inside TXD archives are limited to 31 character in length.

Attaching normal maps to DFF files with

nm_matbuild tool
Nm_matbuild tool attachs normal maps to materials inside DFF files by
materials texture name. The tool can be set up within nm.txt file.

This file has following syntax:

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#
# A DFF file path
# B Texture name
# C Normal map texture name
# D Normal map texture alpha mask name --use "-" if texture has no alpha
# E Normal map texture filtering
# F Normal map texture u addressing
# G Normal map texture v addressing
# H Normal map texture has mipmaps
# I Reflection map texture name --optional. If NM doesn't use
reflection, skip these parameters
# J Reflection map texture alpha mask name --use "-" if texture has no alpha
# K Reflection map texture filtering
# L Reflection map texture u addressing
# M Reflection map texture v addressing
# N Reflection map texture has mipmaps
# O Reflection intensity
# P Modulate reflection map with normal map
#
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
willard.dff wheel wheel_n - 6 1 1 1 wheel_r - 6 1 1 1 2.0 1

Lines marked with # at the beginning are ignored by tool. These lines are
commentaries. They explain parameters which are used in this line:

willard.dff wheel wheel_n - 6 1 1 1 wheel_r - 6 1 1 1 2.0 1

Notice parameters since I parameter are optional. You dont need them if you dont
plan to add reflection map with normal map to material. So the line will look so in this
case:

willard.dff wheel wheel_n - 6 1 1 1

In most of cases, you wont need to touch parameters other than texture names and
reflection intensity. So use them only if you know what do they mean.

As usual, for texture filtering use 2 if texture has no mipmaps and 6 if it has them.

1 FILTER_NEAREST
2 FILTER_LINEAR
3 FILTER_MIP_NEAREST
4 FILTER_MIP_LINEAR
5 FILTER_LINEAR_MIP_NEAREST
6 FILTER_LINEAR_MIP_LINEAR

For addresing mode, use these values:

1 WRAP_WRAP
2 WRAP_MIRROR
3 WRAP_CLAMP

For has mipmaps parameter use 1 if texture has mipmaps and 0 if it hasnt.

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Adapting your models to Normal Map Plugin

For texture alpha mask name (if texture uses alpha) use the same texture name but
with a suffix (for example, reflection and reflectiona).

For reflection intensity, it is normal to use 1.0 value. But you can experiment with
higher and lower values too.

Notice you cant use spaces ( ) within dff path or texture names.

Number of lines inside nm.txt is not limited anyhow. You can use few lines to set
up different materials within one dff model or materials in different dff models.

If there were any problems while attaching normal maps, youll see an error
message in tool window:

File nm.txt not found A tool cant find this file. Check if this file is
placed in the same folder with nm_matbuild.exe.
File filename.dff not found A tool cant find this dff model. Check if a
path is correct.
Cant find material with texture texture A tool cant find material with
such texture name in dff model.
Error when reading dff model There was an error when reading dff
model. Check if everything fine with this model.

Attaching normal maps to DFF files with MatFx tool

Theres also an other way (which is much harder if you dont know how to use
RwAnalyze) to attach normal map to material in DFF file. It requires such tools
as MatFx Section Builder and RwAnalyze.
MatFX tool builds Normal Map data file (.mfx) which could be attached to
material inside dff model then. Read here more about MatFx Section Builder.
Normal Map data has following format:
DffVersion: 0x1803FFFF
MatFxType NORMALMAP
### parameters ###
### Enable Filtering U-addressing V-addressing HasMipMaps Name
Alpha
NormalMap 1 6 1 1 1 Muddy_N -
### Env Map
### Enable Filtering U-addressing V-addressing HasMipMaps Name
Alpha
EnvMap 1 6 1 1 1 Muddy_R -
EnvMapCoefficient 1.0
EnvMapModulate 1

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As you see, it has same parameters with nm_matbuild tool. The only difference is that
if you dont want to include reflections, set Enable parameter to 0 for EnvMap
texture.
EnvMap 0 6 1 1 1 - -

After you built a .mfx file, you will need to import it to DFF model with
RwAnalyze. Create a new section inside Materials Extension (Clump > Geometry
List > Geometry > Material List > Material > Extension) with type Normal Map
PLG (which has an ID 0x133). After this, import .mfx file as a data into this
section.

Notice you need to delete all other Material Extension (if they are presented) if
you attach Normal Map plugin data (such as Specular, Reflection, and
Material Effects).

Also, you need to import some specific data to Atomic which use this material. Create a
new section in Atomics Extension (Clump > Atomic > Extension) with type Right To
Render (which has an ID 0x1F). After this, import:
normalmap_static.rights file if model is not skinned
normalmap_skin.rights file if model is skinned
For non-skinned atomic, it will look like this:

For skinned atomic, the result will be as following:

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Adapting your models to Normal Map Plugin

Normal maps for player model

Since player model has different structure than other models (it is constructed
dynamicly from different parts), there is a special way to setup normal maps for
player model. However, it also has some limitations.
The first and the main difference is that you dont need to touch dff model
files anyhow.
Normal map textures are stored inside .txd files inside normalmap_player
folder.
The Normal Map Plugin detects that player use normal mapping if there are
any .txd files placed in normalmap_player folder.
TXD archives inside normalmap_player are linked with TXD archives inside
player.img. So, for example, if we have player_torso archive, we need to
create payer_torso archive (with normal map textures) in normalmap_player
folder.
Normal map textures are called in same way as diffuse textures, just with
_n at the end.

There is a file normalmap_env_settings.dat for setting up environment

(reflection) maps. These textures must be placed in .txd with normal map
texture.

The line has following format:

# bodypart # texture name # env coeff # env modulate

0 tex_reflection 1.0 1

If reflection is not used, texture name parameter must be set to -.

Normal Maps For Player thing is mainly oriented for global player
modification, such as full player model/textures replacement. It supposes that
all player textures have their normal maps. So if some part hasnt, you could
see some strange result in a game.

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6. Normal Map Plugin settings

There is a settings file (normalmap_byDK.ini) comes with Normal Map Plugin.

You can setup some lighting parameters there.

General
UpdateSettingsEachFrame if true (1), settings will be updated each frame.
Gives you an ability to change values in a file and do a quick check in a game
without closing it. A value in ranges [0;1]
MoonIntensity intensity of moon light at night. A value in ranges [0.0;1.0]

Ambient
AmbientMultR, AmbientMultG, AmbientMultB ambient light intensity. It is
recommended to use values in ranges [0.0;1.0], but you can also try higher
values.

Directional
UseSunColors use sun colors (those defined in timecyc.dat file) for directional
light. A value in ranges [0;1]
SunColorsContribution intensity of sun colors (if UseSunColors parameter is
enabled). A value in ranges [0.0;1.0]
DirectionalMultR, DirectionalMultG, DirectionalMultB directional light
intensity. It is recommended to use values in ranges [0.0;1.0], but you can also
try higher values.

Due to RenderWare limitations, models with normal mapping can be affected

only by one directional light. Thus, you could see how lights switching between
one to another at night time.

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