Big problem with normal mapping. It doesn’t work well with my ambient lighting. Got to put it on hold ’til I think it out.
Written by MM. Posted at 10:59 am on December 1st, 2009
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You should give CrazyBump a try to quickly generate good bump/normal maps from a texture: http://www.crazybump.com/ (assuming that you were complaining about the normal maps quality and not the shader itself)
No thats not what I’m complaining about. It’s a tech issue.
Although the generated normals aren’t perfect. I used a program called Shadermap which does pretty good normals. But normals painted by hand would be best.
i think that the concept of your ambient lighting is maybe a bit wrong. maybe you should look at it as it is done with 3d objects in animation. set up the main light and its strength and radius – be it moon or sun – this light source is casting shadows, now on the side/sides you set up another light which is not casting a shadow, if everything is looking like you want then hurray.
Yes, normals must always be painted by hand. it needs only to enhance detail. In a 3D model, it would be used to add any detail which doesn’t alter the model, eg. text, bumps, scratches, dents, groves. I strongly suggest you look at some portfolio’s of good texturers. Here’s the person teaching me: http://www.teamblurgames.com/odium/portfolio/texturing.htm
And with the ambient problem, maybe make it not affect the normal, just diff, and maybe spec.
I agree with the point makron made. If the lighting is truly ambient, then it wouldn’t be affected by the shape of the surface. If you’re that picky, use a light map.
Makron666: his portfolio looks pretty neat. Is he free to work?