3 replies to this topic

[Gnarlyman]

Lookin' for some relatively inexpensive (...free?) software that will take a texture and generate bumpmaps, height maps, etc. (Btw, are bump maps/light maps/alpha maps all the same thing?)

And...can all that be done in Photoshop?

[fireside]

You can do that with an art program like photoshop but it won't give a true bump or normal map. It will just basically change it to a 2 color image and the light or dark places on the image can be used for height. This may or may not be true to the image. To do a true normal map, you need to do a light bake on the model. One program that does this is xNormal. You can also do it with a modeling package like Blender.

Bump maps are maps that are used for defining normals in the 3d engine, so they give the illusion of depth.
Light maps give the illusion of shadows, but they aren't real time.
Alpha maps are used for transparency.

[Gnarlyman]

Thanks fireside, great stuff. That's really helpful.
I wasn't aware that light maps aren't real time. What's the purpose of them then, if one can simply do said shading in the original texture art?

[fireside]

Light maps are a lot easier on the cpu than doing real time lighting. I know Unity still uses them. If you are developing for lower end hardware, they are helpful.