The SL Bumpmap options...

..Are VILE.

I just tried to bumpmap a jellybean texture with Brightness and every single one of us who looked at it now feels like vomiting. Seriously, what is with these things? They should come with a health warning!

I use bumpmap 'concrete' on stone stairs, 'cutstone' and 'bricks' on my walls and 'stucco' on my ceiling to give them a deeper, more solid look. Some of them work beautifully on a simple flat colour with no texture at all.

Brightness and darkness are good for finely pitted textures but like all the bumpy filters they need to be used with discretion. Jellybeans don't sound like a good idea.

There's no good bumpmap option. It's plain nasty and always has been.

My point is more about offering a nice medium instead of the all or nothing shtick which we're stuck with.

?

That's kind of like saying there's no such thing as a good ham sandwich when you don't like ham.

What they need to do is offer REAL bump mapping, where the content creator can control a custom bump map and its intensity.

What they have now is a pathetically limited subset of what bump mapping can be - more a concept check to see if they could implement it at all. And then never developed past that stage. The Lindens themselves virtually never use the feature in Linden-created builds.

Is there a JIRA about this issue we could vote on?

This.

I have heard the Shadowdraft Client has real bumpmapping. However I've not had an opportunity to try it myself, so perhaps someone who can will take a look and report back.

I don't know if there is one specifically for this issue, but this one has been going on forever:

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5307

Thanks for that. That bug isn't really the issue here though: custom bump-mapping would be a good building feature to add to the client. I did read somewhere that bump-mapping and shiny add to rendering cost, however, which I suspect is why it hasn't been developed.

Nevertheless, I disagree with the OP's assertion that bump-mapping in SL is "vile": the options may be limited but they are useful and effective when used with a little discretion.

It's simple, really. Just enable the darkness option as a separate texture (with an input box like the sculptmap has). Black would be raised, just like a regular bumpmap. Clearly the system is set up already, I honestly can't believe that final step is that difficult.

As far rendering costs goes, the user can turn off bumpmapping, so I don't really see this as a problem.

Absolutely! Brightness and Darkness work great on wood textures. In general, sometimes bumpmaps look great, sometimes they don't, depending on the application. Most RL jelly beans aren't bumpy at all. But I suppose in SL, if you want bumpy jelly beans, it's your world, your jelly bean...

brightness and darkness work great if you make a texture to use the bump mapping its made to be used that way not just any texture. i have had great success uning this feature to add detal to my avatars attachments like diamond plate steel

Oops, sorry, I just made a new post here called 'That new ‘Brightness’ setting in edit?'. Now I discover that this is all about bumpmapping, which I still do not understand....

‘Prim-Minister’ low-prim Antiques and Historic Buildings
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hermetic%20Palaces/118/119/26

Best wishes from Ainee Kohime

..and then I saw that no-one else adds slurls to their signature here... Sorry, I have been spending too much time in the XStreet forums lately. I do apologise.

Best wishes from Ainee