Questions about Normal maps

Troubleshooting SDK
1

Hello again Monkeys, I’m trying to understand more of this nice feature of jME platform.

I found a way for me to generate normal maps in photoshop. And was giving it a test run in jME platfrom.



Here is a result of what i’m getting in the render after applying the material to the geometry.

I’m unsure what to do next.



Screenshot Here.

2

You need uv coordinates to make it work.

Are you using uvs for your model?



Also, as a general rule of thumb, textures dimension are better if they are a power of 2 for better memory management.

Btw, using this normal map on your wall will look as if the inscription is carved, is that what you want to achieve?

3

I was applying it to the geometry of the model, after making the j3m material. I’m uncertain how to use the model UV’s, or if the are part of the geometry as in the individual meshes. The original object has individual surface names, which I’m relating to the different geoms in the scene viewer, however the UV map was just one large atlas map. Perhaps I should start over on a cleared mesh and make standard surfaces each a UV map also.

4

the mesh is good.

You should just look how to create UV coordinates for it in Lightwave, and the ogre exporter will handle them fine.

There are plenty of tutorials on how to do it, you should google it, i’m pretty sure you’ll find what you are looking for.



what i usually do is :

  • create a low poly model
  • unfold it to create a uv map
  • duplicate the low poly model
  • gradually tessellate the mesh and sculpt it to add details (blender or z-brush)
  • once you have your high detailed/poly model, bake normal map to the low poly uv maps (blender does it, i guess zbrush too)
  • bake ambient occlusion for a starter diffuse map
  • apply the normal map to the low poly model
  • refine diffuse map in gimp/photoshop or directly paint in blender
  • create a specular map with gimp/photoshop



    there you have a fine static model ready to use for JME, with high detailed normal/diffuse/specular map
5

I reinstalled blender today and python, but it’ll take me awhile to get re-acquainted with it. Thanks for the info though. I’m still trying to get my head around creating and utilizing normal maps. always a new technique out there. I have found some info for lightwave, and if anyone else is interested a decent link here:



http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/normalmaps.html



P.S.

I still need to try out the neo TextureEditor :slight_smile:

6

You can use one UV map for both the diffuse and normal map, this is the preferred way. Then you can just make a J3M file (jme3 material) that specifies the m_DiffuseMap and m_NormalMap variables. There’s a video on the YouTube jMonkeyEngine channel on how to create a material file with normal maps and apply it on a model.