I'm still kicking tires, I was playing with the NXT mapping controls - I
see that there are several preset bump map options but I didn't see a button to
create my own. Previously I've been using FormZ, which allows me to use an image
file as a bump map (separate to the image file for the bitmap) or an alpha
channel. Does NXT support anything like this? I like to use custom bump maps
for things like specific brick coursing, metal panel layouts, ceiling
tiles/grids, etc.
There are two ways to make your own bump maps in IRender Plus:
1. If you want to use a SketchUp texture material as a bump map, use Auto Bump.
It is at the bottom of the list of Procedural Bumps on the texture tab of the material wizard. (It is only visible if the SketchUp material you are editing already has a texture image.)
Slider bars are provided to set the intensity of the Bump Map (-5.0 to 5.0) and the how much of the color of the texture is included in the material. (0.0 to 1.0)
2. If you want to use one texture for color and a different texture for a bump map, you can use the Advanced button on the material editor to load the full nXt material editor. The nXt editor allows you to define 3 additional texture per material, and customize their use - e.g. bump map, transparency map, merged colors, etc.
If you create custom materials, with bump maps, etc. You may want to save them as .ArMaterial files so you can load them into other projects.