Mobile Normal Maps (Not Working-ish)

[DGlow]

Hi!

So I'm testing normal mapping on mobile but it seems that it's not working on static geometry.

I turned off the 'use normals in simple lightmap' feature (so i could see the tests more clearly) and I turned on mobilenormalmapping in baseengine.ini for SystemSettings, SystemSettingsMobile and SystemSettingsipad2 (im testing on an ipad2)


This is my material setup


This is what it looks like on a dynamic object (mover)


This is what it looks like on static geometry



This test was done on standard May UDK (plus my ini changes)
Here is the package with the material and textures in the test:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2634509/2/N...estPackage.zip

Any help or insight would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

[DGlow]

Anyone? I'll put your name on a sign or something in the game for whoever helps me solve this. And I'll love you forever.

Seems like a silly issue, Maybe its may udk or something I've overlooked. I'll try july udk.

[Agent4054]

Alright, giving my go at this. Was referred to this thread by Alex Dracott

Things to note: I am not a mobile dev, but I have screwed around with it here and there. I used the February and July builds to test this (was the two I have installed currently). I did not edit any ini files for this. All config files are left at default. I enabled the emulate mobile features in the editor, and when running the mobile previewer, I used Ipad2 selected, but default settings otherwise.

Right. I used the default start up map with the two static boxes and a sky. I duplicated the cube mesh, converted it to a mover and left the original static one alone. I applied your mobile material to both meshes. Here are my results:

In each of the following images, the static mesh is in the foreground (or left, if you prefer), and the mover is in the background (right):

In-Editor (Mobile Emu)


In Mobile Previewer


And just for the hell of it, I ran lightmass. I think I remember reading somewhere that when you calc lightmaps on mobile, it bakes in the normal maps as well or some nonsense. But the results of that:

In Mobile Previewer (baked maps)


The results were the same in the February build. But those screen grabs were taken from the July build. I can't seem to figure out why my static results look closer to your mover and my mover looks closer to your static. Not sure if my test helped or if it just raised even more questions. But I hope it was useful at the very least.

[DGlow]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes its all about what it looks like after baking lights.

If you look at mobile emulator or mobile previewer you'll see exactly what you have there where the static geometry looks extra blurry (you caught a nice angle where the specular made it look not quite as bad but you can still see that the normal is baked into the lightmap which is not per pixel normal map shading, but there is per pixel specular) The reason you dont see the blurry lightmap baked normal map in my test is because i turned that feature off so its obvious the normal map is not working.

If you run that same test again with a lightmap res of 32 (i think default is like 512) size you'll see an even more dramatic result of how normal maps are not working on static geometry.

[Agent4054]

Hrm. I see. So is this an inherent problem with the engine currently? I'll do some digging around for you on this. Seems like a rather glaring issue. Then again, it is mobile, and maybe we're expecting too much from it? Either way, will do some extra checking for you.

[Agent4054]

ALRIGHT. Think I see what the issue is now. It's not really any problem with the normal map. As far as it is concerned, it is working as intended. There is nothing wrong with the material.

I had a similar issue back when I was first learning to use lightmaps in UDK. I noticed when I made my first environment (was of our offices), that unless I added some sort of surface noise, be it a detail normal or some other variation to a solid white wall, the light mapped shadows cast on the wall, in certain situations, will make the muddy-looking lightmaps look even worse. It's not actually a problem with the lightmaps either, it's a problem with the diffuse texture. Or moreover, it's how our eyes perceive it. When you use a solid color as a base, the "artifacts" of the compression of the lightmap, or in this case the normal map, shows through as the most prominent detail, when in the ideal scenario, it shouldn't.

Taking the diffuse texture that goes along with the normal map you used, creates a much more pleasing visual, DESPITE using that same blurred to hell baked normal map:


Simply swapping out the diffuse with your solid color tex, you see the underlying normal:


The normals aren't any different, you can verify that by viewing detail lighting only.

Up close:


When you turned off that feature, you essentially stripped the normal mapping method that mobile uses, and so it will only show the per-pixel specular which is derived from the normal map. I would advise you to turn it back on, and be sure to use a busy diffuse if you want to avoid the blurry/muddy look.