i want a norm for normalmaps

rollin · May 2009

why..

why is everyone implementing or creating normalmaps a bit different?! object space, tangent space flipped green, flipped red, red as green or the other way around, flipped green and swapped with unflipped red or blue swapped with fliped red and green unflipped as blue.. .. hello?!?

why is it so difficult to set a norm?

e.g.
green from top
red from right
blue from front

and why do we need object space and tangent space if you can do the same with both?!

where is the w3c for normalmaps?

SHEPEIRO · May 2009

well, swizzleing the channels can lead to optimisations in draw and memory depending on the engine, not sure if object works with self shadowing and other fancy normal based effects .

companies are alway wary of change as usually engines are over more than one project and to change all the normal maps in the middle just to be the same as company B could be disasterous

Xoliul · May 2009

rollin wrote: »

and why do we need object space and tangent space if you can do the same with both?!

I don't think that is correct?

bugo · May 2009

that is not correct, there is definitely a difference from object to tangent, object gets a way better range from the vertex normals that tangent space doesnt. like bakeing a cube is better using object than tangent as tangent after 90º with 2 normal verts gets a bit weird, and object can hold the nmap without a problem. But object you cant have all mirroring types as tangent, is a matter of choosing and where you gonna use it.

Brice Vandemoortele · May 2009

not exactly: object space normal maps won't bother about the object initial normals, so you can't have smoothing error, but on the other side they have half the precision (noise can appear) and you can't use mirrorring except using some tricks.

i want a norm for normalmaps

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