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Normal Maps
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Normal Maps // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by Matski007 // May 30, 2007, 2:13am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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ok, so im Stupid lol. I just dont get it, I dont know how to apply a normal map to something, I thought it would be as simple as applying a bump map, but then of course I realised that in Workspace I dont even know how to change the colour of anything so Bump and Normal Mapping look pretty hard to me at the moment.
Basically, can anyone tell me how to do these things? the manual just confuses me
Thanks |
Post by Matski007 // May 30, 2007, 3:12am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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Do us a favor and edit your 4th word, thanks. Then I'll delete my message too.
Err, sorry, was referring to myself didnt mean to be offensive |
Post by jayr // May 30, 2007, 3:23am
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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what is a normal map? have i missed something? is it a new name for another type of map (such as colour) or something new? |
Post by Matski007 // May 30, 2007, 3:30am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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its a bit like bump mapping, however it actually changes the geometry so adding finer detail becomes easier, also you can make a high polygon model and then render out a normal map so that in your lower polygon version it will still have the same detail but uses less CPU power, visit here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping) |
Post by Steinie // May 30, 2007, 3:51am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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Check out Stevebe's little demo:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=3054 |
Post by Délé // May 30, 2007, 3:53am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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ok, so im Stupid lol. I just dont get it, I dont know how to apply a normal map to something, I thought it would be as simple as applying a bump map, but then of course I realised that in Workspace I dont even know how to change the colour of anything so Bump and Normal Mapping look pretty hard to me at the moment.
Basically, can anyone tell me how to do these things? the manual just confuses me
Thanks
Normal mapping works with the real-time DX materials. Currently DX materials are only constructed in the LE. If you open the library browser there are a bunch of libraries starting with the word "Shader". Open the "Shader - Normal Shaders" library. Now apply the "blank DX" material from the material library to your object. Go into the object in the LE and into the material node. Keep burrowing down into the material nodes until you reach the image below. Now you can drag the "NormalMapShader" brick from the Normal Shader library into the LE. Link it into the "Normal_Shader" input on the "Material" node as shown below.
You can open those other shader libraries such as the "Shader - Color Shaders" library and link those bricks into the material node as well to create DX materials.
6491
its a bit like bump mapping, however it actually changes the geometry so adding finer detail becomes easier, also you can make a high polygon model and then render out a normal map so that in your lower polygon version it will still have the same detail but uses less CPU power, visit here
Actually it doesn't alter the geometry, only displacement mapping does that. It is a form of bump map and only creates the illusion of bumps. A regular bump map uses a grayscale image and only calculates the bump in the Z axis to determine the height of the bump. A normal map uses an RGB image and calculates all three X, Y, and Z axes to get a more detailed bump. It's used a lot in video games, which like the workspace use the DX real-time rendering engine. |
Post by Matski007 // May 30, 2007, 4:43am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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ah I see, now ive become even more stupid, how do I apply a Displacement map to something? lol |
Post by kena // May 30, 2007, 4:59am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I'm still learning this myself. So far I've discovered that if you drag a material to the object from the library on the right, it colors that material. I've been able to do that in Workspace, but not Modler. Then I guess you go down in the link editor and modify it there? |
Post by jayr // May 30, 2007, 5:11am
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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Actually it doesn't alter the geometry, only displacement mapping does that. It is a form of bump map and only creates the illusion of bumps. A regular bump map uses a grayscale image and only calculates the bump in the Z axis to determine the height of the bump. A normal map uses an RGB image and calculates all three X, Y, and Z axes to get a more detailed bump. It's used a lot in video games, which like the workspace use the DX real-time rendering engine.
so does this mean it'll only work rendered from workspace in realtime or will it work with lightworks, virtualight or vray? |
Post by Délé // May 30, 2007, 5:25am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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so does this mean it'll only work rendered from workspace in realtime or will it work with lightworks, virtualight or vray?
Yes that's correct. Normal mapping is intended for real-time rendering.
I'm still learning this myself. So far I've discovered that if you drag a material to the object from the library on the right, it colors that material. I've been able to do that in Workspace, but not Modler. Then I guess you go down in the link editor and modify it there?
You got it. You apply a DX material to an object and edit it in the LE. As I pointed out in my first post, there are Shader Libraries that you can open to pull out bricks to construct your DX materials in LE.
ah I see, now ive become even more stupid, how do I apply a Displacement map to something? lol
Just make sure your object is selected and click on the "Displacement" tool. Then you can add an image and adjust settings in the "Panels" view in the stack. Steinie posted a link above to a thread where SteveBe shows how he combined both displacement and normal mapping to get an interesting effect.
6494 6495 |
Post by jayr // May 30, 2007, 6:22am
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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Yes that's correct. Normal mapping is intended for real-time rendering.
it's a pity that, could be really useful for animation if you wanted to reduce the strain of a scene on your computer, but i suppose there are other ways to do that. |
Post by parva // May 30, 2007, 6:57am
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parva
Total Posts: 822
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You can use normal maps in all rendering engines (lw, vray, ... virtualight I'm not sure). It's not realtime only. |
Post by Délé // May 30, 2007, 7:20am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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Don't the offline renderers convert the normal map to a regular bump map? That's what I thought but I guess I'm not sure. |
Post by Jack Edwards // May 30, 2007, 8:24am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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You can use normal maps with V-Ray. It's available as a displacement shader, right next to bumpmap ;)
You'll need the nVidia plug-in to turn your bump maps into normal maps though.
-Jack. |
Post by rrf // May 30, 2007, 8:57am
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rrf
Total Posts: 319
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I did this as a small test of Normal Maps in Model side - The leaf texture and Normal Map was made in 'Texture Maker' the first square is just the leaf texture, the second was with the Normal map in the Bump channel, the third was the original texture pulled into the Bump channel (no Normal Map) The difference is slight, I feel the Normal Mapped one shows a little more (and better) detail.
This is my first try at posting an image - hope it turns out
edit: I think this was Lightworks
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/newattachment.php?do=manageattach&p=#top |
Post by Heidi // May 30, 2007, 9:29am
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Heidi
Total Posts: 335
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Um...just wanted to give some clarification... normal mapping is supported by vRay on both the Modeller and the Workspace. :) |
Post by rrf // May 30, 2007, 9:36am
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rrf
Total Posts: 319
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Thanks Heidi - I completely missed that.....
rf |
Post by Délé // May 30, 2007, 10:12am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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Looks like the offline rendering engines don't convert it to a regular bump like I had thought. That's great. Thanks for the info guys. :) Sorry for the misinformation. :o |
Post by kena // May 30, 2007, 12:13pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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It's always a learning process. And naturally we depend on the Caligari and Beta teams to help us out. That is what makes this such a great comunity. Lots of new things to try out that way too. :D |
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