Photoshop breaking normal map

TheAxiom

Modelling something simple in Max. Baked well, but if I apply the TGA directly after baking then it looks fine, but once I open it in Photoshop then save it back out as a TGA it looks terrible.

Directly from bake



From Photoshop



I've tried inverting the channels and stuff but it only makes it look worse.

Bek

You've probably got a colour profile or something being applied in photoshop.

TheAxiom

Bek wrote: »

You've probably got a colour profile or something being applied in photoshop.

This is what it's set to. I'm pretty sure I haven't touched it since default.

kurt_hectic

And when you open psd\bake and tga the look identical in photoshop?

I've no idea if that matters but here's mine settings:

Goeddy

actually RGB and sRGB do make a huge difference, you should be able to toggle between sRGB and RGB input in the max material.

St.Sabath

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman,serif]Okay, it’s time to put you out of your misery! Without getting too technical, the reason for the difference is that Photoshop’s default colour profile is usually set to North American General Purpose 2. If you open up your Color Settings window from the Edit menu, you should see that Gray: is set to Dot Gain 20%, which is a greyscale profile primarily designed to work with CMYK/print.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman,serif]Ideally, the greyscale profile should match the RGB working space profile which is sRGB. Luckily, it’s easy to create a new profile that’ll meet our requirements. Select More Options and then select the Gray: drop-down and choose sGray from the list. Save it as a custom profile and close the dialog.[/FONT][/FONT]



[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman,serif]Cheers[/FONT][/FONT]

TheAxiom

I did what you said and I changed it to sGray, but it hasn't improved anything I'm afraid.
I can't seem to find any options in Max about sRGB.

Goeddy

i am not sure if thats the right option, but under
Customize>Preferences>Gamma and LUT

you have to either enable or disable Gamma\LUT correction

that might fix your problem.

also its best if you don't mess around with the color profiles in Photoshop.
they work for me, and they seem to work for everyone else, so there is probably something else that is causing this error.

Shrike

did you try it in a game engine ? 3DS viewport is a bloody unpredictable mess
It may be just fine in a game.

TheAxiom

Goeddy wrote: »

i am not sure if thats the right option, but under
Customize>Preferences>Gamma and LUT

you have to either enable or disable Gamma\LUT correction

that might fix your problem.

also its best if you don't mess around with the color profiles in Photoshop.
they work for me, and they seem to work for everyone else, so there is probably something else that is causing this error.

Hooray! That fixed it! Pat yourself on the back and buy yourself a cookie. You deserve it.