Maya Bump Map stepping - how to fix?
Hello,
Been visiting Polycount forums for quite some time now. I've been playing with Maya for the last 5 years or so, but I am still a major beginner.
I am having some problems with Bump Map stepping. See below:
Scene details:
1x cube 50x50x50 resolution
1 point light
Maya Software, high quality
128x128 Color and spec map
2048x2048 Bump Map
What I've tried:
Tried lower/higher cube resolutions
Mental Ray Renderer
Using a higher res spec map.
Using 32bit BMP Bump Map (what you see now)
I have no clue how to fix this. If I give the Bump Map less details, it looks ok (just edge details, for instance).
I'd glady use Normal map instead, but to be honest, I don't know how to use NM in Maya software, only maya hardware (the NM renders a bit flat in Maya Software).
Been visiting Polycount forums for quite some time now. I've been playing with Maya for the last 5 years or so, but I am still a major beginner.
I am having some problems with Bump Map stepping. See below:
Scene details:
1x cube 50x50x50 resolution
1 point light
Maya Software, high quality
128x128 Color and spec map
2048x2048 Bump Map
What I've tried:
Tried lower/higher cube resolutions
Mental Ray Renderer
Using a higher res spec map.
Using 32bit BMP Bump Map (what you see now)
I have no clue how to fix this. If I give the Bump Map less details, it looks ok (just edge details, for instance).
I'd glady use Normal map instead, but to be honest, I don't know how to use NM in Maya software, only maya hardware (the NM renders a bit flat in Maya Software).
Replies
Basically if you're using 24-bit textures, you have 256 levels of height. That leads to stepping.
Save your textures as 32-bit single channel greyscale textures.
Fortunately for the scene I am working on, the tiles will be off in the distance. But still, I wish I could have a better solution.
In general filtering bump or normal maps is undesirable or bad practice but it might help.