3ds Max 2011: Normal maps won't show up in viewports!

Pencil-of-Sketching

(Utter newbie. Just joined after being told about this site at school. *wave*)

Between my home PC and the many comps at school I've used Max 11 on numerous computers. I've found that on some of them normal maps won't show up in the viewports, even if diffuse maps will. They still show up just fine in the renders, but that's no substitute for being able to preview my maps in real time (I am aware that viewports have dubious accuracy). People at school don't know how to fix this, so we just have to switch computers when we run into this problem. Unfortunately my home computer has the problem too.

Has anyone else run into this problem? You guys know why it happens or, more importantly, how I can fix it?

KyleJensen

This might help:

Customize

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> Preferences

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> Viewports tab

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> Scroll down and put a check in the checkboxes that say "Match bitmap size as close as possible" under download texture size and background texture size.

Also: In your materials browser go to the materials drop down menu and go down to "Show materials in viewport as" and select "hardware display with maps".

Poribo

I'm pretty sure you need to use a "dx shader" material, not a "standard" material.

SpeCter

He can use a standart material if he selects the "hardware display with maps" if i´m not mistaken. But it would look better with a dx shader.

Pencil-of-Sketching

Thanks everyone.

Alight, I've tried testing the same map on two different computers. I reset stuff on my home comp a couple times and got it to work without any further trouble. I still haven't been able to get it to show my school computer (though it still renders out).

I tried Shad0wForce's suggestions. There wasn't enough in the Viewport preferences tab to scroll down, and there was no download texture size and background texture size part. I tried using the "hardware display with maps" thing too. Didn't do anything either.