7 replies to this topic

[Hawkwind]

Anyone know of an existing one ( I can't afford the time to write one ).
Cheers

[Vilem Otte]

Well, this is a little more complicated. What's normal map - it's derived height map, it's calculated F.e. from displaced plane (displacement value is defined by height map). What do we need to "solve"? We need to integrate normal map. I found a way, how to solve this. You go pixel by pixel in X or Y direction and add a "height step" based on normal direction in normal map. So if normal map is just blue, height map will be whole white. If it'd be violet, height map will be from black to white from left to right, etc. I could write converter, if you want (or don't know, how to create it, because it's really not-so-easy application), but it'll take some time or you could download one of existing converters - there's one in Photoshop i think.

[mysticman]

try http://www.crazybump.com/ beta6.2 it's great software

[Frank Skilton]

CrazyBump is nice but won't allow you to convert a normal map to a height map.

The Nvidia Photoshop Plug-ins includes a normal map filter which allows you to convert to height however last time I checked it didn't seem to work too well.

[J22]

Frank Skilton said:

CrazyBump is nice but won't allow you to convert a normal map to a height map.

Infact it does, and it does it 100x better than the nVidia plugin.

[Frank Skilton]

J22 said:

Infact it does, and it does it 100x better than the nVidia plugin.

So it does, thanks for letting me know.

[mysticman]

and the beta 6.3 will be better:yes:

[Hawkwind]

Thanks for the feedback... been away and just got back, so I'll check out these links over the next day or two.,
Cheers