Still don't know how to rending NRM map

[ztz2019 1]

I think I've get first foot in the door of texture making, but there's still a lot of troublesome to solve.

 

the normal map's rending still puzzles me, maybe it will take me a long time to practice.

[Fandore 1]

ztz 2019, I can help you if you want, send me a message on our moddb sight, Tiberium secrets. i can show you how to deal with normal and spec maps and other maps... just an offer out there, i like the model but could use a normal and spec map. also, what format are you saving the art assets as?

[ztz2019 1]

ztz 2019, I can help you if you want, send me a message on our moddb sight, Tiberium secrets. i can show you how to deal with normal and spec maps and other maps... just an offer out there, i like the model but could use a normal and spec map. also, what format are you saving the art assets as?

Oh, many thanks. Forgive me that I can't reply in time.

[Egozi44 28]

I also want to know how you can make NRM

 

So far I was able to make ones only from existing ones

 

Never from zero

[Lauren 78]

You best start by learning what a normal map even is (at least the basics). From there it's actually quite simple.

 

Each pixel on a normal map represents a 3d vector (where RGB is translated to XYZ). It is used to store the direction in which the surface points, so shadows etc can be calculated. Z is the up direction. And for an orientation you need a unit vector (length of the vector is always 1).

As colors are stored in 3 channels with 0-255 steps one has to define how to get negative values from there, so it's basically broken in half, so values lower than 128 represent negative values (value in 0-1 range * 2 - 1) which is why a flat part of the normal map is 128,128,256 (as 128 represents 0). All other values are how the vector must be rotated to match the surface.

 

Now to get a normal map you can just use the nvidia plugin as suggested in to docu, which is recommended. With that you first paint a height map (black and white image, brighter values suggest that part is higher, dimmer values are lower), and then the plugin will automatically calculate the vectors which are needed to either make a height jump or if the color ramps up. As anything needs a little more space it is recommended not to overdo details, as explained in the documentation.