Maya tangent space "transfer maps"

oXYnary · Jul 2009

I'm trying to help someone whom used transfer map. I don't think the final tangent map is in the same setup I need.

Does anyone know what the default channels and +_ for the rgb are and further, where this can be chosen?

I need them to be in
-x -y +z
R G B

Thanks.

ebagg · Jul 2009

Not sure quite what you're asking.... Red channel is the X and Green Channel is the Y... if you need to flip one or both of those, put your map in photo, goto your channels tab, select the R or G channels, and hit ctrl+I to invert them. That help?

oXYnary · Jul 2009

thanks for the reply ebagg. Unfortunately no as I need to know how maya by default has the channels setup. Is it left to right or right to left,down up or up down or like with xnormal, -X or +X, etc.

Different game engines recognize these channels differently. If you have this wrong the model wont shade correctly with the lighting, and may even look inverted. Im pretty sure this isn't using the same setup as its much more purple than the normal maps I create in max. In fact in max in the projection tab, I have to make x start from the left versus its want to default to the right..

pior · Jul 2009

Oxy, I think he just means that it might be easier to setup an action in Photoshop to rearrange/tweak your channels the way you want them to be, rather than painfully trying to tweak the maya Transfer Maps behavior ...

oXYnary · Jul 2009

I know, but I mean, in order to do that, I have to know what the original (default) settings were in Maya so I can figure what needs to be inverted or moved.

I do not have Maya to check against, and the person Im helping didn't know where to look. Google hasn't been much help.

pior · Jul 2009

http://www.panda3d.org/wiki/images/c/c9/Maya-hyper-2.jpg

knowing that the joint between the bricks is supposed to be a recess, this will give you all the info you need. Simply load that in PS and explore the channels.

oXYnary · Jul 2009

Load what exactly? You mean that picture you linked and crop to that normal map then take in to engine to see what it does? Unfortunately the lighting sucks in these levels and its hard for me to tell whats going on if the surface variance is very small.

I have to admit Im a tad confused here. No one has ever had to setup their maya normal map render differently from normal to accommodate a particular engine?