How Do I Apply A Normal Map Correctly?

[pali_rao]

Hi

I've read the VRay manual, but it's confused me - https://docs.chaos.com/display/VC4D/VRayNormalMap

Say I have a mesh that has the normal range of maps - diffuse, roughness, metallic, normal and height.

I create a VRay Material, add in diffuse, roughness and metallic there.

For displacement - I apply a VRay geo tag to the object and apply displacement there.

For a normal map - do I set this in the 'bump' slot then chose one of the normal map options here?
OR
Do I add an additional VRay bump material or a VRayNormalMap and apply that to the mesh AS WELL AS the original VRay material, or do I need to connect them in the node editor?

It's so confusing!!!

The native C4D material has slots for normal, displacement and bump - is another option to simply just use native materials?

If anyone could tell me the correct way to apply a normal map, bump. map and height map to one mesh that would be great!

Thank you

[aleksandar.kasabov]

Hello pali_rao,

For a normal map - do I set this in the 'bump' slot then chose one of the normal map options here?
OR
Do I add an additional VRay bump material or a VRayNormalMap and apply that to the mesh AS WELL AS the original VRay material, or do I need to connect them in the node editor?

You can load your normal map inside the Bump section of the V-Ray material, you will just need to change the Bump Type to Normal Map (you can check the different types here).
You can add a V-Ray Bump material if you have materials, different from V-Ray material. Additionally, you can stack multiple V-Ray Bump materials to create more complex setups, using multiple bump and normal maps together. You can find more information about the V-Ray Bump material here.

The native C4D material has slots for normal, displacement and bump - is another option to simply just use native materials?

Please note that there is only partial support for native Cinema4D materials. With the release of the beta version of V-Ray 6, we added a converter for the native materials to node materials. More about it can be found here.

I hope this is of help.

[pali_rao]

Thanks aleksandar.kasabov ! That's so useful!! I just bought the 3D Render and Beyond course for VRay with C4D, so am learning lots!

[aleksandar.kasabov]

Hello pali_rao,

Glad to hear that! Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post them on the forum or open a support ticket via our contact form. Cheers!