Bump Maps not rendering

[philosofix]

Why would my bump maps not show up? Displacement works but the shots are for small detailed areas that only seem to work with the displacement. The map is on one polygon face with a UV Map. It's a packaging shot showing small embossing. I have tried tweaking parameters and tried positive and negative values, but nothing seems to work. I searched the forums and found nothing. Any clues.

Thank you

Joe

[percydaman]

can you post a screenshot? Make sure your not just using a skylight only, as the even lighting will kill bumpmapping.

[sv]

yep percy is right - it has a lot to do with the lighting, and a skylight, or even a low contrast HDR can really kill a lot of detail.

bump maps do work though, even very low values; it's just about your setup.

[philosofix]

Sorry I cannot post a screenshot because of NDA. Not that you can see the bump mapping. But I tried zooming in and using a different view (perspective) and I noticed it. The bump area is quite small but the res is large 2475x1275. However as you said even lighting may kill it, I do have 1 Vray light, 2 reflectors and the skylight. I will try a spot on it.

I did notice but now I can't seem to replicate, that turning off the "use irradiance map" made the bump look like what you would think. Though it appeared debossed. So I changed the value from positive to negative. The drawback was Vray's speed was slowed too much.

thank you