XCF is a file format which is special because it is GIMP's native file format: that is, it was designed specifically to store all of the data that goes to make up a GIMP image. Because of this, XCF files may be quite complicated, and there are few programs other than GIMP that can read them.
When an image is stored as an XCF file, the file encodes nearly everything there is to know about the image: the pixel data for each of the layers, the current selection, additional channels if there are any, paths if there are any, and guides. The most important thing that is not saved in an XCF file is the undo history.
The pixel data in an XCF file is represented in a lossless compressed form: the image byte blocks are compressed using the lossless RLE algorithm. This means that no matter how many times you load and save an image using this format, not a single pixel or other image data is lost or modified because of this format. XCF files can become very large, however GIMP allows you to compress the files themselves, using either the gzip or bzip2 compression methods, both of which are fast, efficient, and freely available. Compressing an XCF file will often shrink it by a factor of 10 or more.
The jpeg format uses a compression which tries to get rid of parts of the image most people won't notice anyway. As you compress the image smaller and smaller, the changes gradually get more noticeable.Thats why you work on the file as .xcf then save as .jpeg so you don't lose but the smallest of data which is not noticeable to the eye.
This technique does two “smart” things to avoid sharpening noise:
1. sharpen only the luminosity channel, and
2. create a channel mask that contains only the edges in the image. Then you can load the channel mask as a selection and apply the unsharp mask to just the edges.
the guide
ingame images
smart sharpening process
removed the scale tools since they weren't working properly,
and properly pasted the guide steps with images.
If someone can post the corresponding tools for photoshop,
i will add them to the first post.
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In a bumpmap the brighter the color is the more elevated the surface is. 50% grey is not elevated or lowered, but neutral. Black is lowered the most amount.
This is actually a normal map. Since a normal map is XYZ and not just XY like in a bumpmap, so there needs to be 3 colors instead of 2 (black and white)
What is listed as a "bumpmap" in toribash is really just a normalmap, which is very confusing.
You generated some very impressive normal maps and got great results. Your tutorial is easy to follow, and I think will definitely encourage more interest in normal maps!
There are some online tools which can also generate normal maps, so depending on your texture you might get better or worse results.
http://www.crazybump.com/ - very very popular in 3d communities
https://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ - not as popular but quite effective I think