Normal mapping???

[MotorCity3D]

I am trying to get a bump map on a mesh and using a bump map out of maya is n't working, the bump map ends up showing black ont he mesh, I treied using a normal map using crazy bump, that wouldn't work at all- it was inverted.

I have no clue how else to get a normal map. I downloaded the nvidia plug-in for photoshop, but it won't even show in the app.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Ghiest]

Bump map and normal map are two different things in maya (and generally other places as well). A bump map is a grey scale map that just gives height information, where as the normal map is a 3 channel map which contains directional (x, y, and depth) information.

In maya you need to add it as a bump map but change the selection in the bump map to Tangent normal map, this will tell maya that it's a normal map rather than just a bump map.

[Kelt'ar]

I am trying to get a bump map on a mesh and using a bump map out of maya is n't working, the bump map ends up showing black ont he mesh, I treied using a normal map using crazy bump, that wouldn't work at all- it was inverted.

I have no clue how else to get a normal map. I downloaded the nvidia plug-in for photoshop, but it won't even show in the app.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'll suggest U install the Nvidia plugin to your photoshop folder...It ususally does that itself actually.

I had the same problem with using a bump map as a normal map in UDK...The entire mesh lost its specularity (Went all dark).

If you have a normal map that's inverted: In photoshop
>click on the channels (Make sure U have the normal map Layer selected) >click on the green channel and hit: Ctrl + I.

That should set it straight.

[MotorCity3D]

Bump map and normal map are two different things in maya (and generally other places as well). A bump map is a grey scale map that just gives height information, where as the normal map is a 3 channel map which contains directional (x, y, and depth) information.

In maya you need to add it as a bump map but change the selection in the bump map to Tangent normal map, this will tell maya that it's a normal map rather than just a bump map.

That did it. Thanks guys. But I do have one proplem with it, The bump....er normal I'm trying to get is ok in maya, but when in udk the non-slip paint bumps don't show unless theres a specular on it. I don't want that shine- only on areas that need it.

I do need to lighten up my texture colors a bit, that might fix it.

I really appreciate the response.

Thanks again.

[Ghiest]

It's because Maya generates normal maps differently, you need to take it into Photoshop/gimp and flip the green chan then save it again.

Conversely, if you are generating your normal maps inside Maya then use left-handed normal map generation



(select this option before baking normal maps and when it goes into UDK it will be fine)

[MotorCity3D]

I didn't even know I could generate a normal map inside of maya. I will try it. I did get it to work using a normal map I created with crazy bump- but I think crazybump is buggy as hell and crashes alot.

[Ghiest]

Well yes but it's not anything like crazybump or the photoshop filters, it is a transfer maps ability to take complex geometry and transfer it to a lower polygon mesh and generate the normal map from there.

[MotorCity3D]

I tried getting the photoshop filters from nvidia and it won't work.

Is there any other PS filter to use?? I can't stand using crazybump- it just seems unreliable.

[Ghiest]

Xnormal has a photoshop filter as well. (XNormal.net I think)

[MotorCity3D]

Thanks buddy. I installed it and it works good, file size is small also. When I went to filters to see if it was there, the nvidia filter decided to show up also. and that also works good.