Converting normal map to vector displacement or other way to apply it to mesh

bartosh44

I`m doing relief from photo. I used Quixel Ndo to use with preset. Now I see good for me normal map on preview. I would like to apply it to mesh. I converted that normal to height map but quality is worse than on normal becouse only one axis (normal map uses x,y,z, same as vector displacement, ordinary displacement uses only one axis - height). I thought to change in someway normal map to vector displacement and apply it to plane polygon. Next I will transform it to mesh (Modo 901).

Other thing is to make operations on pixels manualy to get vector displacement from normal map nm_x = vd_x, nm_y = vd_y, nm_z = vd_z.

Any help?

Eric Chadwick

Normal maps by default only store lengths of 1 unit. So they're fundamentally different.

I t

You're throwing away detail which is needed for vector displacement.

And a height map has no direction other than straight up (or out).

You need to use a source with volumevolumetric information... a 3D model.