Normal map map

[Clifton Santiago]

Oops. My bad. Its working now. Cheers.

[peakyfreak80]

Is there any sort of relief mapping that can be used for x64 machines? According to the website, the Relief Mapping plug-in is only for 32-bit.

[Clifton Santiago]

As noted directly above, it does work for 64-bit...

[sharpcube]

hMM

i realy don understand the difference between a normal and bump map

who can anser that? thx

[jreynolds]

Thanks so much Valdo!

i realy don understand the difference between a normal and bump map

who can anser that? thx

A normal map has more information in it to help the bump do it's thing. So in a sense it's three times more powerful because/ useful/ acurate... it uses all color channels as apposed to just one mono channel like in a standard bump map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Map

[vlado]

The main difference, from algorithmic point of view, is that for bump mapping, the renderer must derive the normal from a height-field. This involves, for each shaded point, calculating the texture at *several* (usually 4) other points to derive the bumped surface normal. This may be slow and not quite precise.

A normal map, on the other hand, stores normals directly, not a height-field, so the bumped normal can be obtained directly with just one texture evaluation and with more precision at the same time.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jreynolds]

I know this is probably something you snapped together in an hour or so but I'm curious if you plan to further develop it to distribute with VRay. I'm using it in a VRayBlendMtl three times over and it seems to really be slowing MEdit updates to a crawl. I need to do some more tests but I can imagine that my procedural noise... etc bump maps may have something to do with the time it takes to convert and update. Is there any chance that it can be sped up or is it just the nature of the beast when converting data like this?

Best regards,
--Jon

[vlado]

There's not much data to convert really so I'm not sure why it would be so slow; anyways, in newer builds of V-Ray there is a VRayBumpNormals render element which does the same thing.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Paul Oblomov]

Any chances to get max 2009 x64 version ?

[Shimakaze]

Hey Vlado remember this one?
I'd love a 2009 version or two *hint hint*

[vlado]

In SP2, there is a VRayBumpNormals render element that you can use for the same purpose.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Shimakaze]

That doesn't work for this purpose though... remember, the idea is to convert procedural maps to normal maps on the fly in order to use them directly in the render without having to do any texture baking. Specifically for use with Relief mapping. It's not critical but still nice to have

[vlado]

Ah, I see. Will try to recompile this then.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Jer25]

I'm getting "DLL <C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\plugins\vraybump2normal90.dlt> failed to initialize. Error code 126 - The specified module could not be found."

Is it's not for Max 2009?

[Shimakaze]

Is it's not for Max 2009?

Not yet...