Hi,im giving an environment a lighting pass in UDK and i am having a problem with my normals being drowned out by the lighting. Any thoughts on why this might be?
@JO420: What build of UDK and screenshots would help I remember in September update there was something about taking into account normals for lightmass. You could also try strengthening your normals in your materials.
@JO420: What build of UDK and screenshots would help I remember in September update there was something about taking into account normals for lightmass. You could also try strengthening your normals in your materials.
I updated it recently so i suspect it is the latest.
This is one of the normals which does not show,the render on the top left is the material. It has normal and heightmap as well and it still shows up really flat. I dont know if i can make the normals any stronger.
Go into the world settings *> Lightmass > “Indirect Normal Influence". Try boosting that. It may be set to a really low setting causing your lightmass to barely take your normals into account.
Go into the world settings *> Lightmass > Indirect Normal Influence". Try boosting that. It may be set to a really low setting causing your lightmass to barely take your normals into account.
My guess would actually be that your lighting itself does not have enough contrast, and the amount bouncing around flattens the effect of normals because equal amounts of light hit the surfaces from most directions. You can compensate for this by increasing the Indirect Normal Influence but that would probably still leave your lighting a bit flat.
I'd recommend setting the DiffuseBoost (the main source of bounced light) in your world properties to a lower value like 2.0 so that your direct light has greater contrast with the bounced light.
A screenshot of the material on a light-baked surface would help also.
Try increasing the gloss a tiny bit, roughness and apply the texture to a sphere in the scene and light it. It definitely looks like the normals aren't working at all in that picture.
Also did you import the normal map with the correct texture compression type?
Try increasing the gloss a tiny bit, roughness and apply the texture to a sphere in the scene and light it. It definitely looks like the normals aren't working at all in that picture.
Also did you import the normal map with the correct texture compression type?
I have raised thed glossyness alot but it seems like its not using spec information. I made the sphere with the material,lit it and the normal strength has not improved much
It seriously looks like you simply don't have a normal map at all. Like arcanox said, did you ensure that your texture has the proper compression settings/type? What does your material editor material look like?
It seriously looks like you simply don't have a normal map at all. Like arcanox said, did you ensure that your texture has the proper compression settings/type? What does your material editor material look like?
Try copying one of the stock materials in UDK that just have a simple normal map and diffuse setup. Insert your maps into the copy and see what happens.
Also just try dumping some regular normal mapped udk assets into your scene and see if they work. The link gun has it's normals on, but that's not a baked material, but it at least demonstrates that there's not some kinda crazy rendering error that prevents normals from showing up.
Sorry to bring up such an old thread, but I think I've run into the same problem. In my case my normal works fine in the lighting preview but whenever I build all the normal detail just disappears and it looks nothing like the preview in the editor at all.
I've tried everything mentioned above, and tried changing settings everywhere and multiply my normal maps etc etc, nothing at all. The normal detail shows up fine on the preview in the material editor as well. I really have no idea what's going on.
Thought you might have some kind of answers? some kind of revelation that you came up with?
I don't use UDK so i could and probably be totally wrong here, but have you tried seeing if theres any ambient lighting in the scene thats getting overblown during the lightmass building?
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I updated it recently so i suspect it is the latest.
This is one of the normals which does not show,the render on the top left is the material. It has normal and heightmap as well and it still shows up really flat. I dont know if i can make the normals any stronger.
Already did,its set at .8
I'd recommend setting the DiffuseBoost (the main source of bounced light) in your world properties to a lower value like 2.0 so that your direct light has greater contrast with the bounced light.
A screenshot of the material on a light-baked surface would help also.
@Zack I tried all the things you have suggested,it helped a tiny bit but not as much as i would have hoped.
@proph Tried your suggestion as well and it didnt seem to have any impact.
Also did you import the normal map with the correct texture compression type?
I have raised thed glossyness alot but it seems like its not using spec information. I made the sphere with the material,lit it and the normal strength has not improved much
I imported all the normals as TC_Normalmap
Also just try dumping some regular normal mapped udk assets into your scene and see if they work. The link gun has it's normals on, but that's not a baked material, but it at least demonstrates that there's not some kinda crazy rendering error that prevents normals from showing up.
I've tried everything mentioned above, and tried changing settings everywhere and multiply my normal maps etc etc, nothing at all. The normal detail shows up fine on the preview in the material editor as well. I really have no idea what's going on.
Thought you might have some kind of answers? some kind of revelation that you came up with?