Trouble with normal maps
Hi everyone,
This is my first post on the Polycount forums, and I am very new to 3d modelling and texturing so bear with me.
I have been following along with a Youtube weapon creation tutorial by Arenovalis, and got a little stuck when it came to editting my model's normal maps. In the texturing section of his tutorial video series (around the 24 minute mark), the guy creates a new text layer over his original n map with writing on it, then overlays it above the original normal map so that in his render the model will appear to have the text engraved into it. I followed along his steps to the letter, but I keep having the same problem when I try to apply the new normal map to my model. I've outlined what happens in this imgur album.
Basically, any time I try to edit a normal map in Photoshop it seems that it shows up in 3ds Max much darker and different that it appears to be (I am using Xoliul's shader to display my maps). I even opened then immediately exported the original normal map to a different name, applied it to the model, and had the same strange effect. Could someone help me out?
EDIT: Does anyone know how to remove maps in the Xoliul shader?
EDIT2: Also, does anyone know what these blue dots are? They show up when I apply more detailed diffuse/specular maps that have been merged with the model's ambient occlusion and cavity maps.
This is my first post on the Polycount forums, and I am very new to 3d modelling and texturing so bear with me.
I have been following along with a Youtube weapon creation tutorial by Arenovalis, and got a little stuck when it came to editting my model's normal maps. In the texturing section of his tutorial video series (around the 24 minute mark), the guy creates a new text layer over his original n map with writing on it, then overlays it above the original normal map so that in his render the model will appear to have the text engraved into it. I followed along his steps to the letter, but I keep having the same problem when I try to apply the new normal map to my model. I've outlined what happens in this imgur album.
Basically, any time I try to edit a normal map in Photoshop it seems that it shows up in 3ds Max much darker and different that it appears to be (I am using Xoliul's shader to display my maps). I even opened then immediately exported the original normal map to a different name, applied it to the model, and had the same strange effect. Could someone help me out?
EDIT: Does anyone know how to remove maps in the Xoliul shader?
EDIT2: Also, does anyone know what these blue dots are? They show up when I apply more detailed diffuse/specular maps that have been merged with the model's ambient occlusion and cavity maps.
Replies
Does Xoliul's shader even work with 3dsmax2013? I know Autodesk changed some things around in an update and broke viewport shaders.
You shouldn't be viewing your normal maps in Max's viewport anyway as it is terrible. You should take the model into an engine, Unity, UDK/UE4, Toolbag2, CryEngine, etc, as that is best practice.
Also, when combining normals in photoshop, use this script as it gives the proper results, where just overlaying normals can make them look weaker then they should be: http://vincentcallebaut.com/CombineNormal.html
Also, I turned on the gamma correction just for a second to see what it looked like, but when I turned it back off it looked like this:
I assume it is a gamma correction problem, but I have gamma correction turned off so I'm not sure.
@ZacD: Thanks for the tip! I'm exporting the file as a .tga, so I examined the export settings and turned off the export alpha channels and that seems to have solved the problem.