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Xnormal or 3ds Max Hammersley Normals ?

David1983
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David1983
Hey guys,
I just wanted to ask if there are any big quality differences between a normal map created in Xnormal and one created in 3ds Max with the Hammersley Global Supersampling.

Creating a normal with "Hammersley" especially when you have a HP model with like 300.000 polygons, takes so fu#### long and with xnormal it takes like one minute....
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  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    Depends what your final rendering engine is. For example UDK, and UE4 are synced with xNormal's tangent basis, so you will get the best results with xNormal. If you are using Marmoset 2 then it gives you the option to pick which tangent basis that you are loading in so you can match it to your baking program. If you are rendering your model in 3DS Max than you will probably want to bake the normal in there to get the best results.
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  • David1983
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    David1983
    Thanx for your answer! I'm using UE4 and Cryengine, that means Xnormal should be perfect.
    I'm just wondering how it is possible to get the best normal redner result when the render process is so short in xnormal...
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  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Hammersly is just the sampling technique used and doesn't apply to the normal map tangent calculations. The calculations are based on the 3D package that is baking the normals, 3Dsmax, Maya, xNormal, etc.

    Also, Hammersly gives almost no quality difference over Max 2.5 star, and takes much longer.
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  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    David1983 wrote: »
    Thanx for your answer! I'm using UE4 and Cryengine, that means Xnormal should be perfect.
    I'm just wondering how it is possible to get the best normal redner result when the render process is so short in xnormal...

    Well UE4 yes, but Cryengine is different. Here is the documentation on that http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC3/Normal+map+baking+with+xNormal.

    Accuracy of normal maps have nothing to do with time of creating because there are no sample settings like you have in say an AO map. Accurecy of normal maps have to do with proper baking techniques and math.
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  • David1983
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    David1983
    Many Thanx!
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