Misc US/Canada License Plates + PSD Templates 0.97

[hal4000]

hal4000 submitted a new resource:

US License Plates + PSD Templates - A collection of US license plates and PSD Templates

Here's a small collection of US license plates I made.
They are ready-to -use for the NFS cars made by @A3DR, @aphidgod and @Some1.
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/nfs-tournament-class-a.16905/
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/nfs-tournament-class-b.20228/
You can also use them on other cars by renaming the files. To use them, unzip to a folder of your choice, open the State folder of your choice...

Read more about this resource...

 

[hal4000]

hal4000 updated US License Plates + PSD Templates with a new update entry:

US License Plates + PSD Templates 0.91

Update 0.91

- Added Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Jack.A.Lope]

Cool! This interests me I know close to zero about PS but have tinkered with GIMP. The purple .dds is a mipmap,no? I don't know how to make that. Is there a tutorial that explains the process in GIMP?

BTW feel free to make Wyoming

 

[hal4000]

The blue one is a normal map. It is used for the embossing of the letters and numbers. Without it you would have just a flat plate with painted on numbers. You can use photoshop to make normal maps. I only recently found out myself how to make them. (sort of) Just google it and see what you can find. There's probably many ways of doing it and I doubt my way is the best. Unfortunately I can't help you with Gimp. It's been ages since I've used it.

 

[Jack.A.Lope]

I will see what I can learn, thanks

 

[hal4000]

I will see what I can learn, thanks

Here's an example what you get if you don't use a normal map. This was made in Content Manager Showroom. CM doesn't show NM's in it's showroom. The plate looks flat with the numbers painted on.

Here's a shot from the game:

Link for full res: https://ibb.co/bQG2DL
Maybe a bit hard to see on a screenshot, but on a moving car the difference is quite clear.

 

[hal4000]

Just in case you ever just need a flat plate use this NM:

https://www34.zippyshare.com/v/BoAgc42z/file.html

If not the game will load the default NM.

 

[Jack.A.Lope]

I got the dds and normalmap plugins for Gimp and found a pretty good tutorial on using them, so ima going to figure this out if it takes all weekend.

 

[hal4000]

Yeah ok. Just go and try. It's not that hard. If you need any help, just shout out.

 

[Jack.A.Lope]

Well, it looks like the back of my Miata now, a little out of scale and the plate is Oregon and not Wyoming, but that wasn't hard at all! Kinda fun actually. There is a feature in CM for editing skins that also lets you change plates on some cars; think I will try a template or two for that!

 

[A3DR]

I love the pack of course, but I have to admit that the normal maps are bothering me a bit for two reasons. First, I think that the embossed raised letters should be more defined, you seem to have too much blur or low detail in the creation of the normal map settings.
I'd go with these settings instead:

This is how it looks:

And this is your original normal map:

Not only it has less detail, but also you saved them using DXT5 compression, which generates those weird artifacts or pixelation. Always save the normal maps uncompressed using RGB 8.8.8 or 8.8.8.8 with alpha.

 

[hal4000]

@A3DR

Thanks so much for this post. I knew I was doing it wrong. About the compression settings, I use intel and I can't see the settings you're talking about. When I save I choose for images without alpha layer I choose the one that says:

BC1 4bpp lineair
also DXT1. Maximum compatibility. No alpha channel.

No idea what it all means but I thought It was the correct one. What I did see now is a setting for normal maps. I'll give that one a go. And I'll try out your settings of course. Thanks.

 

[bullldoze]

Wow! Loved the idea!
Where is Utah's license plate, though?
Could you????

 

[hal4000]

Where is Utah's license plate, though?
Could you????

Mmmmm...., Utah? You mean this one?

Was just working on it. Will be in the next update.

@A3DR

I think I got it now. Used the normal map option and saved it without compression. Looks way better now. Artifacts are gone. Thanks again. I was gonna ask you about it one of these days but I didn't want to keep you from working on more important matters.

 

[Stereo]

Content Manager can fairly easily have extra license plate templates added to its paint shop, you just need to put the non-text base + bumpmap in `AppData\Local\AcTools Content Manager\Data (User)\License Plates\United States\States` as eg.
California.lua
California.png
California_nm.png

The lua script is just a text file you can edit the text colour + vertical offset in.

AppData\Local\AcTools Content Manager\Data\License Plates\United States\States has the ones that come with it which I made the 1970 California and 1980 Illinois ones for the Monaco and sent them to x4fab (kind of in a 'better than nothing' state, they don't have the annual update tags).

If you know a bit of Lua you can probably script them to include the space in the middle, I'm not sure how though.

 

[A3DR]

Mmmmm...., Utah? You mean this one?

Was just working on it. Will be in the next update.

@A3DR

I think I got it now. Used the normal map option and saved it without compression. Looks way better now. Artifacts are gone. Thanks again. I was gonna ask you about it one of these days but I didn't want to keep you from working on more important matters.

Cool, this is what modding is all about. Not only sharing knowledge and experience but also realizing how deep you got into when it started as a "simple" project

Never used the intel dds compression tool. Always go with the Nvidia plugin for that, is there any advantage on that one?

 

[hal4000]

I have no idea. I installed it when I needed it and only found out much later there was another one. lol So I really don't know about the differences.

 

[hal4000]

hal4000 updated US License Plates + PSD Templates with a new update entry:

US License Plates + PSD Templates

Update 0.92

- Redone Normal Maps. More detail and no more compression artifacts.
- Added Washington D.C., Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming, California and New Hampshire.

Special thanks to @A3DR for not only making superb models but also for sharing his knowledge with us mere mortals.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Jack.A.Lope]

@hal4000 thanks for your update. I used the same blank you used to make Wyoming plates to do a template for Content Manager that goes into:

\Users\[%userdata%]\AppData\Local\AcTools Content Manager\Data\License Plates

This allows editing "some" cars from AC. The Miata is one, of course. I like that because I happen to have rebuilt one last winter, "Little Martha". An going to do Arizona next.

You gotta use spaces when you enter characters to leave room for the bronco. But I learned some things and spent some hours have a good time thanks to the incentive you provided I hope you use CM otherwise I've wasted bandwidth.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xxb2jcj01l75xok/wyoming.zip?dl=0

 

[Stereo]

I actually use another dds compression tool called "Compressonator" which is a free tool by AMD, one funny thing is it includes a bunch of DX11 formats that AC supports but can't recommend for backwards compatibility (so it'll default to BC2 or something, which you can load in AC but you should stick to DXT5 or 1 depending if it has alpha or not)

It's far better than GIMP's dds plugin, dunno how it compares to intel/nvidia tools.