Normal map issue with UE3

onionhead_o

how do u increase the intensity of the normal map in Unreal Editor 3?. I heard that u add a multiply to the normal map. But the thing is im not sure. Also how do u make the map playable after u publish it?

Slipstream

I'm not quite sure what you mean on the increasing the normal's intensity, but if you don't think its displaying properly, you might have to flip the red and green channels in photoshop.

As far as making it playable, you have to rename your file to DM-[levelname]

onionhead_o

sry for not explaining it thoroughly. what i mean is the bumps on the normal map in UE3 does not show up as much as it did in max. Also is there a required place to put the Map in order to play it.

Jonathan

If you're not going to modify the original normal map, perhaps use a multiply node (Ctrl+M) and a Vector3 input (Ctrl+3) and hook them up. Try adjusting, for example, the blue channel by changing the Vector3 input to 1, 1, .5 or 1,1,1.5, etc. This is off-the-cuff, so pardon if any of the nomenclature I'm using is wrong.

To publish the map, try to keep all assets saved into the map itself. Then hit publish, and hope you don't get any errors.

Justin Meisse

I'm pretty sure the thing to do is go to level adjustments in photoshop and switch to the different color channels bumping up their levels.

PixelMasher

yea definitely maximize the range of the channels to make sure you are getting the most out of it. i find with unreal the normals need to be fairly strong, because the effect is somewhat subdued once the lighting has been baked in.

cholden

It's true that within U3, your materials will appear weaker versus max. Adjusting levels is the quickest solution. There is also a way within u3 to punch it up, but I don't have the technical knowledge to explain this. Another option is your lighting within u3. If it's bad, your material will never look good.

vj_box

yes, you always need to churn up the intensity of the normal maps in unread-ed.Quick solution as mentioned below is to use a multiply node with a vector node.Any time i use to import a normal map into unreal,it always appear weaker when compared to the real time output u see in 3ds max.
But you can see some of the official maps done by epic,where you can see,for an asset, some of the complex nodes have been used in the material editor to achieve the desired effect.

Vj

whats_true

^^If you look in some of the UT3 files in the Generic Browser, you can see how they up their normals.

Jonathan had it right. I wouldn't mess around with the R, and G values (not to say you can't), but if you tweak the B , you will generally get a higher normal. 1,1,0.5 or 1,1,0.25 will give significant changes in the normal map. The vector color is like a yellowish tan color.