dark lighting in viewport w/normal?

fritz

ola!!! fritz presents his 1,520 question of the day!!!! can someone tell me why the viewport is displaying my object w/normal test so dark? and the render comes out normal(no pun intended? this is just a texture test...so no jokes please. haha.

cheers

MoP

I believe that's just Max sucking noisily at real-time normal-map display.

What shader are you using? Normal Bump? I've had problems with that in viewport too, not reacting properly to lights. I never found a fix for it.

I believe Max8 does a lot better in this respect.

You could also try Ben Cloward's normal map DX9 shader, but that's only a viewport preview, so you can't render it.

fritz

MoP...i could see you comin' round the corner. yes, i am using normal bump. AND i am using max 7. so...i guess i'm not doing anything wrong...which is good to know.

thanks

J.I. Styles

to eliminate a few obvious ones:
-make sure you use perspective view
-are you using the viewport directx preview (the pink checker box)?

Noren

I assume you did try to move around the light ?
In order to see if the normal map is interpreted right. (tangent vs object, x/y or whatever channel flipped etc. )
Depending on the viewportshader you are using it may be reading normalmaps different from the rendered shader.
Also you have to set a bitmap for the diffuse in most viewportshaders.

Joao Sapiro

viewport normal mapping is always painfull...ben cloward might be the best suggestion.