Fresnel / spec / bump file names schemes

[FSXLiveries.com]

Hello everyone,

A while ago I started to play in area of fresnel and reflection/spec/bump files by creating completely new ones from scratch for PMDG 747.
I checked the scheme used for naming these files and had no problem with that.
pmdg_747X_fuselage1.dds
pmdg_747X_fuselage1_spec.dds
pmdg_747X_fuselage1_fresnel.dds
pmdg_747X_fuselage3_bump.dds
I also created two separate files dedicated to reflection.
fresnel_reflection.dds
fresnel_reflectionw.dds

I will leave this particular plane for a moment and switch to C172 made by A2A.
Their scheme for naming the files is different and that's not a surprise for me.
However, what confuses me are the names and amount of files used for fresnel reflection.
For C172, A2A used 5 different fresnel files.
Fresnel1.dds, Fresnel2.dds and so on till Fresnel5.dds so I assume those are responsible for different parts (areas) of the plane.
For example Fresnel3.dds works for main fuselage and actually every exterior parts saved in main paint file called c172_t.dds.

The other thing that confuses me is naming bump maps. PMDG uses _bump at the end of the file name, while A2A used _n at the end of the file name, for example c172_n.dds
Similar situation with Spec files. PMDG adds _spec at the end where A2A used _s, for example c172_glass_s.dds.


Now, my questions come.
First and most important for me: Are there any general rules/schemes/guides for naming the files used by developers when preparing 3D model and exporting its textures to separate files? Tho, _spec and _s naming is clear for me, difference between _bump and _n isn't at all.
Also, how can I find out what are the rest of the Fresnel.dds files responsible for? For which parts of the plane?

Since I have no experience with 3D modeling and software used for exporting the textures from 3D to 2D files, I will appreciate an explanation, eventually links to the guides which can help me to understand these differences and schemes used for file naming.

Best Regards

 

[=rk=]

If you Google "normal map," you will see the images are similar to those from a search for

"bump map:"

Normal is actually the industry standard term, while bump is somewhat deprecated. Naming schemes are just that, a scheme. Suffixes are selected by the author to simplify organization, I do not believe there is an official guide.

The Fresnel ramp is a small RGB texture which is used to define both how opaque a reflection will be and what color that reflection will be across a range of incident angles relative to the viewpoint. The map itself is 256x4 pixels in size. The long dimension is the important one; it has a height of 4 pixels to offset the effects of mipping. Grayscale values in the ramp define the opacity of the reflection and the color information is used to color that reflection. Reflection in this case refers to any reflected light from a surface. The Fresnel ramp can be set to affect the Diffuse, Specular and Reflection on a surface, or any of them in any combination thereof.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/microsoft-esp/cc526975(v=msdn.10)

You could probably use MCX Hierarchy Editor to isolate components by texture.

 

[Pyscen]

Hello...

Rick is right,... there isn't a specific naming scheme or thought process in the suffixes (such as "_n" or "_spec") except by the author(s) choice. Though there is a naming scheme, if you wish to call it that, specifically for aircraft textures naming such as the "_t_spec", specifically the "_t" portion of the name, anything identifying it as a certain type of texture (such as, _detail, _specular or _spec, _bump or _b), there is not.

 

[FSXLiveries.com]

Hi guys,
Thanks for quick respond and explanation about the suffixes. Silly me, I forgot about this word. What these files are responsible for I do know already
@=rk=, I thought both names, normal map and bump map, are used in the industry interchangeably.
Also I checked the link you added and I see that I read it while ago but it didn't answer actually to my questions. Now after your and Doug's answers, it's clear.
Thanks a lot!
Regards

 

[Pyscen]

Hello...

Actually, the terms, "Normal Map" and "Bump Map", are only interchangeable within the realm of FS. They aren't the same though. The difference is that a "Bump Map" (Only within the FS World) requires an additional step when creating them. The "Normal Map" within the 3-D graphics world is the standard.

That additional step in creating a "Bump Map" is the reason for the change in what they are called. I'm sure you know what that additional step is: moving the Red channel into the Alpha channel (just so the novice knows: ) .

 

[n4gix]

To further the discussion, I suspect that the question "why is it called a normal map" might naturally arise. The answer is surprisingly simple. In simple words, any polygon surface has a direction that light is reflected that normally points directly towards the viewer. This vector is called a "normal". What a normal map does is encode an alteration to those vectors so that it appears to point in different directions, which when applied in the simulator, gives the illusion of being three dimensional.

There is an excellent Wikipedia article describing normal maps in more detail:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping

Here is another very well written article on normal maps:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map

 

[FSXLiveries.com]

Thank you for your help, guys.
Your answers helped me in understanding process.
Regards