Normal or bump maps?

the_Adri · May 2013

Hi,

This is probably a stupid question, although I have no choice but to ask. I'm still a noob when it comes 3d modeling, trying to teach myself. I've been following a lot of tutorials on cg.tuts.com and they use a bump maps when it comes to texturing. I haven't seen one where they have used a normal map to texture. I've been looking other peoples models and textures on the forum and no one uses the a bump map. Is there a reason for it? Should I stop making bump maps? What's the difference? '

Thanks.

Ark · May 2013

Traditional Bump Maps only shade pixels on one axis whereas Normal Maps can shade on all three axis.

Bump Maps are generally better for finer details like skin pores and wrinkles.

Normal Maps are far more popular in games than other forms of CG.

LMP · May 2013

Normal Maps. Last time bump maps were used in games was back in the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox generation.

Vailias · May 2013

The old monochrome bump map has largely been replaced by normal maps (called Dot3 bump mapping in its infancy). Displacement maps and bump-offset or parallax mapping still use a monochrome image for their work, so its good to understand the basic mechanics of what a bump map does, as the look is rather similar to a single axis displacement map.

the_Adri · May 2013

How come they are using it in these tutorials when it's been replaced by normal maps?

Ark · May 2013

In other forms of CG such as movies, Bump Maps are used in combination with Displacement Maps.

The Displacement drives bigger forms, while the Bump is used for tertiary details.

EarthQuake · May 2013

Bump maps are normal maps in the end anyway, whatever shader or renderer you're using has to convert the bump map into normal space. Its better to do the conversion yourself, so you can control the quality there(otherwise you get some default sampling applied to it).

Normal maps can do everything a bump map can do, but bump maps do not do everything a normal map can do. Normal maps from baked high resolution geometry replace the normals of your low resolution mesh, in essence replacing the smoothing/shading of your mesh and making it look like the high poly model. There is no way to do this with a bump map.

Normal or bump maps?

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