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Is it +Y or -Y for normal maps?

polycounter lvl 9
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MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
So what is the default normal map setting for Substance Painter?

-Y or +Y?

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  • Froyok
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    Froyok greentooth
    -Y means DirectX, +Y Means OpenGL.
    Substance Designer is set on DirectX by default, while for Substance Painter we used OpenGL. In both software you can change that easily. Especially in Painter since it's a global setting in your project.

    We don't offer the possibility (yet) to export the normal in the space you want in Painter, so it's based on the project settings for the moment.
  • MeshMagnet
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    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks for the info. I was baking out of XNormal (+Y) and noticed my normals were inverted. I didn't realize DirectX needs to have inverted normals.

    Is there any advantage to using DirectX over OpenGL in substance painter?
  • Froyok
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    Froyok greentooth
    I was referring to the default implementation in Dx/GL. Nothing prevent a programmer to use +Y normals map in a Direct3D application.

    As for the advantages : same difference. :)
    I tend to prefer +Y as I find easier to read a normal map that way, but I use -Y now because of the UE4 (since it's the default setting). This makes things faster to work with rather than having to invert the texture each time I import one in the engine.
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