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db&w Support Forum  |  infiniMap  |  General infiniMap Discussion  |  Infini Map and Normal Maps 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. « previous next »
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Author Topic: Infini Map and Normal Maps  (Read 1744 times)
lwmusings
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Infini Map and Normal Maps
« on: June 19, 2008, 07:43:57 PM »

In my never ending quest for larger (poly count), more detailed geometry in Lightwave I've been playing with normal maps. I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a good work flow for using infinimap to load a super large normal map and apply it to a model. I'm stuck because its seems lightwave's "NormalMap" node does not take any image input.

One way to solve it would be if or is there a way with infinimap to make an image loaded by infinimap appear in the image dropdown list so that I could select in in the normalMap nodes image dropdown.

Or I've been playing with the infinimap extended node thinking the "colour (Normal)" output might work somehow, but I still seem to be stuck in the fact it needs to pass through the "NormalMap" node which takes no image input.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
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lightwolf
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2008, 06:56:40 PM »

One way to solve it would be if or is there a way with infinimap to make an image loaded by infinimap appear in the image dropdown list so that I could select in in the normalMap nodes image dropdown.
Agreed, I wish that was possible. It would have also saved me from coding the 80% of infiniMap that emulate LWs image texturing Wink
Or I've been playing with the infinimap extended node thinking the "colour (Normal)" output might work somehow, but I still seem to be stuck in the fact it needs to pass through the "NormalMap" node which takes no image input.
That output actually interprets the infiniMap image as a bump map and outputs a vector that perturbs the normal according to the bump.

You can try the "Object Tangent" node from Denis: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/dpont/plugins/nodes/Additionnal_Nodes_2.html , this works if there is a UV map to project the normal map with.

Cheers,
Mike

P.S. native suport for normal maps is on the to do list...
« Last Edit: June 20, 2008, 06:59:22 PM by lightwolf » Logged

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lwmusings
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2008, 03:17:24 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion with "Object Tangent" works beautifully. I really love infinimap, it should be on every Lightwave user's "must have" list. The new openEXR support is sweet, giant 32-bit floating point images with a small memory footprint!
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lightwolf
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2008, 03:39:25 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion with "Object Tangent" works beautifully. I really love infinimap, it should be on every Lightwave user's "must have" list. The new openEXR support is sweet, giant 32-bit floating point images with a small memory footprint!
Thanks a lot *blush* ... can we quote you on that ?

Cheers,
Mike
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lwmusings
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2008, 03:47:00 PM »

Quote
... can we quote you on that ?

Sure, no problem. Hope it can help get the word out.  Smiley
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lightwolf
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2008, 03:51:54 PM »

Sure, no problem. Hope it can help get the word out.  Smiley
Hey, me might just do that Cheesy

Thanks and have a nice week end!

Cheers,
Mike
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Jon
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2008, 12:44:01 AM »

I don't own Infinimap (yet) but was hoping that it would work with this exact pipeline that lightwolf was hoping for as well, which is why I was thinking of buying it.

Being that there is no native support in Infinimap for Normal maps, what exactly is the "workaround" if any to get them in? In short, am I stuck on using my high resolution normal maps on my low resolution geometry the old fashioned lightwave way?

Any news when Infinimap will support normal maps just as it does the texture maps?
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lightwolf
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2008, 10:07:06 AM »

I don't own Infinimap (yet) but was hoping that it would work with this exact pipeline that lightwolf was hoping for as well, which is why I was thinking of buying it.

Being that there is no native support in Infinimap for Normal maps, what exactly is the "workaround" if any to get them in? In short, am I stuck on using my high resolution normal maps on my low resolution geometry the old fashioned lightwave way?
The workaround is to use Denis Tange Space node: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/dpont/plugins/nodes/Additionnal_Nodes_2.html
Any news when Infinimap will support normal maps just as it does the texture maps?
There'll be a V1.5.1 update out in a few days, once that is done I'll get to it. V1.6 should include normal map support then - hopefully in a couple of weeks.

Cheers,
Mike
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lightwolf
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Re: Infini Map and Normal Maps
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2008, 10:22:34 AM »

Since we're talking...

I've planned to add new outputs to the extended Node to allow for the normal maps.
This would have the advantage of including support for implicit projections (i.e. spherical projection) as opposed to being limited to UV projections only.

Cheers,
Mike
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