normal map trouble

Krisonrik

I am not familiar with all the aspects of normal map yet. But it seems it's only good for rendering in certain angle. Because no matter how much light I put on right side, when I turn the camera to render in a different angle, one side of the model is not lite up at all. Anyone mind give me some tips on this? I don't recall games having this problem...

ScoobyDoofus

Krisonrik: Its really tough to diagnose whatever problems youre having when you:

A) dont provide screenshots of the issue
and
When your grammar & sentances are incomplete. Its hard to tell what you are asking. Please be more clear, and Im sure somebody will be able & willing to help.

MoP

If you're using 3dsmax7, this is often a display bug. You could try using a different DirectX shader. Search for Ben Cloward's HLSL shaders, his site has information on where to get them and how to use them.

However, as ScoobyDoofus said, you could be a lot clearer - you didn't even mention what program you're using, which makes it pretty much impossible to provide accurate help.

aniceto

itd also be good if you posted the normal map.

Krisonrik

Here are screen shots of what I am talking about. The point light is perfectly in the middle. So these 2 pictures should have same amount of light covered on the body. I am using Maya 7.0

Daz

I don't think I fully understand what's going on here. You're rotating her or you've moved the viewport? You're moving the viewport and the way that light bounces off her changes you mean?

Have you tried flipping channels?

Krisonrik

Yes, I rotated the view point. Since the light is perfectly in the middle, the amount of light should be same for both of these 2 shots. But they are not. How do I flip channels? I have never heard of that.

Husch

To evaluate a normal map you could animate the light in a circle around the character and then scrub back and forth with the timeslider.

Daz

I mean the color channels in the normal map shader. I assume you're using jsnormalmapper?

Krisonrik

sorry, for late reply, was away for few days. Anyway, I don't know what jrnormalmapper is o.o;;
Basically, I just use surface sampler create a normal map from a high poly model. Then I just link the normal map to the low poly model inside hypershade.

Daz

Ah right, that'll be your problem then. Unfortunately maya doesn't render normal maps properly out of the box (happens to be a major bitchfest of mine).
You'll need a specialised shader. Try js_normalmapper:

http://www.pixero.com/downloads.html

Krisonrik

Thank you so much for this info. You are always my savior