3DSMax8 baking normalmaps in greyscale

marks

As thread title, max is baking my normalmaps in greyscale in the same fashion as a lightingmap, despite clearly having normalsmap checked in the RTT options. Any help would be much appreciated.

Example (Yes, I'm aware of the cage errors I'd just rather fix the more fundamental problems first)


Render settings:

Talbot

Is that a screen cap from the screen that pops up while rendering?

Filbot

The way 3ds renders normals is sorta funny. The render window that pops up does not show the normal correctly (its not colored like a normal map) but 3ds is in fact creating a normal map you just have to browse to that file on your harddrive. Hope that helps.

vik

The render output will look something like that, but it actually saves the normal map correctly. Did you try to open the saved file in PS?

edit :^^ you guys are pretty fast lol

marks

Yeah, I'm dumb. Thanks dudes.

Talbot

Don't worry about it marks. I was there not too long ago... actually a month ago. :P

Tumerboy

So really the question here is, WTF is wrong with Max? Why not just show you the ACTUAL output?

Ghostscape

Tumerboy wrote: »

So really the question here is, WTF is wrong with Max? Why not just show you the ACTUAL output?

What should it show you when you render a diffuse, lighting, AO, and normal map?

I think showing the complete map makes the most sense when you start rendering more than one map, and if it was inconsistent it'd be confusing.

marks

Just pencil it down as (yet) another one of max's lovely little quirks. Oh we love you max, yes we do.

Lee3dee

what the trick to displaying the normal map in max? I put the normal map into the normal bump, and in the bump in the texture but it doesn't display in the view port. Wondering if there's a setting I'm missing.

also. I was thinking about UV mapping a normal map file. for example, this is my high poly and i was thinking it maybe better to have 1 big section for the grooves so they have the most detail. where as my current NM file they are broken into individual panels with very little detail.


Sorry to hijack your thread marks

Mark Dygert

Tumerboy wrote: »

So really the question here is, WTF is wrong with Max? Why not just show you the ACTUAL output?

I agree it catches way too many people off guard, they should just disable it and give a progress bar instead.

To explain it:
That's the actual output of all the maps combined (same thing as running a "complete map). What it shows is a full render of the object, then based on your settings it saves out pieces of that render. They would have to pop up a few windows if you had a few maps going at the same time (Diffuse, AO, Normal, Height) that could be more annoying and possibly even slow the whole process down more?

If its really annoying disable it in the Render Setup Window (9) > Common Tab > uncheck Rendered Frame Window. Or think of it as a progress bar.

It's more a "once bitten now you're immune" issue then it is actually "broken".

Lee, It depends on what version of 3dsmax you have, if its 2008-09 then in the material editor you change the "Show Map in Viewport" button to be Pink checker instead of Blue. If its older there's a lot more wrangling that needs to be done and I don't remember off the top of my head.

You can put the normal map UV's on a separate UV Channel, but it depends on the engine as to if that is supported, UE3 does handles up to 99 channels but realistically you should stick to 3. Diffuse, Normal, light/shadow map.

Tumerboy

ya, it's not a big deal to me, just seems stupid. Complete Map makes sense when rendering everything out. But even if the ONLY thing I'm rendering is a Normal Map, it still doesn't display just the normal map.

Popeye9

one nice thing that max does have though is the view image file under the file menu which can save you from opening another program to see your baked textures.

idtdi

wow ~