Difference between revisions of "Normal Maps"

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Normal Maps (edit)

Revision as of 22:26, 5 June 2008

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-;Normal Maps : Normal maps are textures that are used by Oblivion's render engine to give a model surface an appearance of additional surface detail. In its effect it is very similar to bump-mapping. the normal map is usded in shading the model and provides a convincing relief effect to surfaces, making the model look like it has a much higher polygon-count than it actually does. For Oblivion, normal maps are [[DDS]] textures indicated by an _n suffix after the texture's base name.
+;Normal Maps : Normal maps are textures that are used by Oblivion's render engine to give a model surface an appearance of additional surface detail. In its effect it is very similar to bump-mapping. The normal map is used in shading the model and provides a convincing relief effect to surfaces, making the model look like it has a much higher polygon-count than it actually does. For Oblivion, normal maps are [[Glossary#D|DDS]] textures indicated by an _n suffix after the texture's base name. Basically, a normal map tells the game engine how light should reflect off an object.
+:Oblivion uses Tangent Space normal maps, best recognized by the blue color that fills any 'flat' areas of the image.
-'''More info:'''
+:There are many different ways to create a normal map, either from a 2d image, a 'height map', by transferring data from a High-Poly mesh to the Low-Poly mesh, or a combination of the above. A common practice is to create a hybrid version of the color map (texture), whereby the artist removes/adds detail in the image to produce an image that will convert well into a normal map.
-[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping Wikipedia article on normal mapping]
+:Also, the [[Glossary#A|Alpha Channel]] of the normal map contains the [[Glossary#S|Specular Map]], which controls how reflective/shiny the overall effect will be.
-[[Normal_Maps_Basics| Normal Mapping Basics tutorial]]
+;More Information
+*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping Wikipedia article on normal mapping]
-[[Category:Glossary]]
+*[[Normal_Maps_Basics|Normal Mapping Basics tutorial]]
+*[[Quality_Normal_Maps|Creating Quality Normal Maps tutorial]]
+*[http://www.bencloward.com/tutorials_normal_maps1.shtml Ben Cloward's Normal Map tutorial 1]
+*[http://www.bencloward.com/tutorials_normal_maps9.shtml Ben Cloward's Normal Map tutorial 2]
+*[http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Bump_and_Normal_Maps Creating Normal Maps in Blender]
+*[http://www.xnormal.net/ xNormal], A free standalone application for creating normal maps from High-Poly meshes.