[SOLVED] Strange NormalMap problem

Troubleshooting
1

Hello,
I have a really strange problem. When I add a NormalMap to my model, which is a simple textured quad, everything looks fine. Once I clone that quad (or load it again via the assetmanager) and attach it with an offset, one of the quads is always brighter than the other and it looks like the normalmap is somehow messed up… This video shows what I mean:

Sorry for the reddish tone, that’s because of f.lux. As you see, it is dependent of the camera position.

This is my code:

package mygame;

import com.jme3.app.SimpleApplication;
import com.jme3.light.DirectionalLight;
import com.jme3.math.ColorRGBA;
import com.jme3.math.Vector3f;
import com.jme3.renderer.RenderManager;
import com.jme3.scene.Spatial;

public class Main extends SimpleApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Main app = new Main();
        app.start();
    }

    @Override
    public void simpleInitApp() {
        Spatial plane = assetManager.loadModel("Models/wall/plane.j3o");
        plane.scale(.5f);
        rootNode.attachChild(plane);
        
        Spatial clone = plane.clone();
        clone.setLocalTranslation(2, 0, 0);
        rootNode.attachChild(clone);
        
        initLight();
        
        flyCam.setMoveSpeed(10);
    }

    private void initLight() {
        DirectionalLight sun = new DirectionalLight();
        sun.setDirection((new Vector3f(-0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f)).normalizeLocal());
        sun.setColor(ColorRGBA.White);
        rootNode.addLight(sun);
    }

    @Override
    public void simpleUpdate(float tpf) {
    }

    @Override
    public void simpleRender(RenderManager rm) {
    }
}

This is the material file:

Material MyMaterial : Common/MatDefs/Light/Lighting.j3md {
    MaterialParameters {
        Diffuse : 0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0
        UseMaterialColors : true
        ParallaxHeight : 0.05
        Ambient : 0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0
        GlowColor : 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0
        DiffuseMap : Repeat Textures/william_wall_01_D.png
        Specular : 0.089473695 0.089473695 0.089473695 1.0
        Shininess : 12.5
        NormalMap : Repeat Textures/william_wall_01_N.png
    }
    AdditionalRenderState {
      PointSprite Off
      FaceCull Back
      AlphaTestFalloff 0.0
      DepthWrite On
      ColorWrite On
      PolyOffset 0.0 0.0
      DepthTest On
      Blend Off
      Wireframe Off
    }
}

And finally, the NormalMap:

Oh and BTW, is it normal that normalmaps do not work with just an ambientlight (I don’t see the bumps)?

2

I’ve never got normal maps working properly (lol) but did you generate tangents for the plane? I think you have to do that… or I may be wrong.

TangentBinormalGenerator.generate(plane);

2 Likes
3

Thank you. Oh my god I cannot believe that I was so stupid… I even tried it some times with tangents but I think I just generated them for a batchNode I used or so… Thanks!

4

Yes, normal maps and bump maps require tangents or they cannot work. The problem is that the shader has no real way of knowing if you set it or not and so will fill in ‘whatever happens to be in RAM’ when tangents are not specified.

So sometimes it will look less wrong than others.