After talking with one of the programmers here, I have a question - do models using object-space normal maps have to be 100% uniquely UV-mapped? Also, he mentioned precision issues with them, since local normal maps are just in the half-space (180 degrees on X/Y, -1 to 1 on Z), they are less likely to suffer from artifacts…
Anyway.. all of this doesnt even really matter, because tangent space maps are about 1 billion times easier to edit, blend, mirror, rotate, and touch up than object space maps. So using anything else is tying one hand behind your back as an artist.
I remember we did a test with deforming objects, we just took a prop and added very simple skining and bent it back and forth. The lighting seemed to transform correctly but we never really tested it extensively because there was no need to use it with organics, and we mirror a lot of stuff on our character models. The way…
Well we have the shader in there now, suposedly working. I'll have to just take one of our characters, convert a tangent space map to object and throw some animations on it and see what happens, i'll see if i can get permision to post the results when i get around to doing this.
It really depends on what you're doing, if its mechanical stuff object space is about 1 billion time easier to create lowpoly meshes for, and render nice clean distortion free normals for, whereas trying to get a tangent space map working on a complicated weapon for example, without tripling the tricount and having…
All the BF characters I did had world\object space maps. Its rare, but it works just the same if your engine is set up for it. Here is a dude back from early 04 :P When normalmaps.. and my knowledge of them were pretty new haha http://media.pc.ign.com/media/568/568737/img_1942917.html These days I only see tangent space…
You are probably generating your tangent space incorrectly if there is a significant difference (if in zbrush you are generating it at a subdivision level higher than 0). Object space normals will look nicer (at least I've heard) because they are more explicit and don't need to rely on surface normals, while tangent space…
Well it'd be pretty simple, really, just a material flag (or even a boolean) that would say whether to do the calculations for object or tangent space normals, which shader to use, etc. The idea of an 'engine supporting' shader tech as such as really a popular misnomer... it is just a matter of adjusting the material…
[ QUOTE ] I've never seen a game asset use world-space normal maps. My guess is that one of your tangent space channels is flipped. You might try inverting the green channel and seeing if that corrects the issue. [/ QUOTE ] Thanks for the thoughts guys, it's been quite informative to a noob like myself. And Kevin, you're…
similar to the tangent stuff, you could encode per vertex a "mirror axis" to make object space maps that are mirrored. Though I am unsure if this has been done before. the artefact thing is indeed true, mostly you have XY from -1 to 1, just like objspace, but Z normally is 0 to 1 however I also think most software you use…