Answered: Adding normal map details from generated masks

Veezen

Hi! I have used dDo Legacy a lot, and there was a slider for Height for each layer with detail mask. Where is this option in Suite 2? I know that I can "Add new map" and choose Height from available list, but after that my models broke on parts. I liked that feature in dDo Legacy and it would be cool to do the same thing in Suite 2.

Synaesthesia

I absolutely agree (being an avid user of dDo Legacy myself!  ) - here's what you can do. Use the Masks input in DynaMask and load your height map to use it as an additional mask if you'd like to avoid the Displacement channel's effect on your model topology.

Veezen

Synaesthesia said:

I absolutely agree (being an avid user of dDo Legacy myself!  ) - here's what you can do. Use the Masks input in DynaMask and load your height map to use it as an additional mask if you'd like to avoid the Displacement channel's effect on your model topology.

Well ... don't get it. You mean this? (Screen)
It seams to be more complicated on first try than I thought, in dDo everything was clear for me at the begining. Why changing something, that was great before? I don't really get it at all

Synaesthesia

Yes!  That's the screen I was referring to. Unfortunately, I did forget to mention a few things.

You can add your height map as a custom material (set it to Albedo only) from the main dDo window, and then you can load that as a map to mask out details inside of DynaMask with the Masks option you just linked. Or you can specify the height map via the base creator, or from adding a new map as you've mentioned. Either option will currently bump the mesh out slightly (unless you're loading a true displacement map), so you can fix that by clicking on the Import tab of 3DO and moving the slider for Height to zero. If it already is at zero, go ahead and slide it a bit and put it back at zero again.

dDo2 is significantly changed from dDo - you may wish to read over the tutorials at Quixel.se/learn to see our library of learning material - and don't hesitate to ask for assistance!  

Veezen

Let's try again ... I watched most of these tutorials, none of them shows "how to add NORMAL MAP details from LAYER which have Dynamask set on with for example Acid Large default mask". I know that I can add NORMAL MAP details by importing custom textures, but this is something different. I was really addicted to workflow in dDo Legacy and trying Suite 2 isn't easy (well, at least at this moment it's better than Suite 1 when I trying to test it earlier).

I want to clear it again. I want to add normal details the "similar" way like in dDo Legacy (dDo had Height map slider on every layer).

So I have my project with some progress, and now I adds last Layer ("Add clean layer") which will be contain a mask set in Dynamask Editor to Acid Large - only mask, not MATERIAL. Right know if i set default Acid Large mask and press "ACCEPT MASK" I got only values to change on Albedo, Gloss, and Specular. The thing is that I want to add bump details on NORMAL MAP using THE SAME LAYER (not only on Albedo, Gloss, and Specular but also on NORMAL MAP) and have option to increase or decrease intensity of that mask on normal map (in dDo it was Height map slider, which works different). As I said before, I used dDo Legacy alot and it's not easy to forget about great feature that software had and start using new way.

Synaesthesia

If you want to add normal details to an existing dDo project, you'll need to add a Bump channel to that project and adjust its value to match the surface details you desire. Upon export, the Bump channel will be combined into the Normal channel to give the desired appearance for textures. This is a similar approach to how Legacy handled it, except that you have a bit more individual control over channels using dDo2.  

Veezen

Ok I see this - it works a little bit different but "it works". I thought that I forget about something while making masks in Dynamask Editor and create a new Bump Map is useless. Thanks for quick answers and helpful posts I need to get used to it.

Synaesthesia

As someone who also thoroughly enjoyed Legacy, I will say that it does take some getting used to. But I think we can all agree that the results in Suite 2 are fantastic. If you like the Legacy results, you can actually bring them into your project as masks provided that you use the same model and input maps for both dDo2 and dDo.  

If you're ever curious about how to do it, I can explain it!

davaze

Is this depending on which export profile you choose to have the bump channel added into the normal map? Lately I watched a tutorial where the bump map had to be saved out as a separate texture file because it was not added into the normal map. I also wondered how to add normal details within DDO.
Adding a bump channel sounds logical if it really is converted into the normal map upon export. So I'm a bit confused watching that tutorial on Liberty 3D.

Synaesthesia

Which tutorial are you referring to, Davaze? As far as I'm aware, any game engine calibration profiles in the Suite will combine the bump channel into your normal map.  

davaze

I purchased both volumes from Liberty 3D which had some basic tutorials for NDO and DDO painter, see below.
DDO for Lightwave Users- Volume #6- NDO Painter
DDO for Lightwave Users- Volume #7- DDO Painter

In the second tutorial (Volume#7) they added a bump map manually and painted bump details. After export, the main maps like gloss, ao, normal and specular are exported but they saved the bump map manually from PS as it was not added into the normal map. Maybe i understood something wrong from this post.

So if you add a bump channel and paint on that channel, upon export it should add the bump details into the normal map automatically?
I'll try it out myself to see how it works :-)
Thanks.