Has anyone ever seen (or can anyone make) a 3ds map that can convert another map into a normal map on the fly? Would be nice to be able to use tiles or other procedural maps as normal maps without having to convert into a bitmap or do a normal map render.
Doesn’t sound like it would be too difficult to create at least.
No, it’s not difficult at all actually… not sure if someone has not written one already.
Best regards,
Vlado
Well everyone? Is anyone up for the challenge? 
Well.. in general there shouldn´t be a difference when rendering a tiles map as standard bump map or you convert it to a normal map. The result should be the same.
It would only give you an advantage if you intend to use it with the Relief Mapping Plugin.
Exactly my intention
relief mapping plugin? Do tell…
Relief mapping (parallax mapping) is a pixel shader that uses a displace map and a normal map to create the illusion of depth. Think of it as a very light weight alternative to per pixel displacement. It was made for use with realtime 3d so it’s adds almost nothing to the rendertime and creates a very realistic displacement.
You can find the free map and utilities here:
http://maxplugins.de/max2008\_32.php?search=relief&sort=Author
Anyway the only problem with it is that it needs both a displace and normal map and you can only make displace maps procedurally in Max at the moment. Meaning if you want to use the Tiles map or another one you would have to turn it into a bitmap and use an external program to make the normal map (which would defy the whole point of procedural maps) or apply the map as a regular per pixel displacement effect and render out the normal map that way (which would take even longer)
Having a map that could turn any procedural map into a normal map would make it a lot more efficient.
So you can try this one and see if it works:
Best regards,
Vlado
Works great! You rock Vlado!! 
The material editor preview sometimes turns pink but it still renders properly.
can you show an example of its use? or maybe a small test file?
I’ve been using CrazyBump to manually convert some of mine to normals. it works pretty smoothly with lots of control and a realtime preview
Unbeatable support! Wow.
Best regards,
A.
Here’s a test I did. All images were rendered with the same GI/image sample setup. Only the material was swapped.
Only diffuse channel: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- no depth.jpg
Bump mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- bump mapping.jpg
Normal mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- normal mapping.jpg
Relief mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- relief mapping.jpg
Displacement mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- displace mapping.jpg
In this test scene displacement mapping is actually faster then relief mapping, but the displacement adds a lot to the GI calculation. Caching it without any displacement beforehand gave these results:
Displacement mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- displace mapping-cachedGI.jpg
Relief mapping: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief- relief mapping-cachedGI.jpg
Max file: http://www.ascantica.com/stuff/relief.max
(needs Vlado’s bump2normal map and the relief mapping v1.8 plugin.)
~Shima
Great stuff. I particularly like the relief mapping.
Vlado, any way you can update the bump2normal map plugin to work for 2008 x64? I tried it just now and it doesn’t…
Works for me; what happens when you try it?
Best regards,
Vlado
Oops. My bad. Its working now. Cheers.
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.
As noted directly above, it does work for 64-bit…
hMM
i realy don understand the difference between a normal and bump map
who can anser that? thx
Thanks so much Valdo! 
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.