Photoshop - Saving Normal Map DDS Washed Out

ekul · Feb 2016

I'm having issues saving a normal map as a DDS with the Nvidia PS tools. When I save it (DXT5 - I have an alpha), it becomes washed-out. Does anyone know how to fix this?

What it should look like (left) and how it looks saved as a .dds (right):

And here are the settings:

Eric Chadwick · Feb 2016

Looks like you're double-converting. If the source is already a normal map, then no need to convert it to a normal map again. Disable the "Convert to tangent space normal map" checkbox. The NVIDIA tool tries to convert height maps into normal maps. And your source image is not a very good height map... it's a normal map!

Eric Chadwick · Feb 2016

Also this is good reading.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Compression

Most engines these days will automatically compress normal maps for you. You usually don't have to do this in Photoshop. Which engine are you using?

Photoshop - Saving Normal Map DDS Washed Out

Replies