When to use bump maps and when to use normal maps...

[MasonDoran]

Normal maps look best in Real Time engines, but in apps like Mental Ray, they dont look as good and you cannot easily control the intensity. So for software renders, bump maps are better.

[Kanga]

Normal maps give information on the x, y, and z axis. Bumps maps only give information on the normal axis of a poly. The results I am seeing in recent game competitions are pretty high frequency although there is no subdivision modifier on game models so you see voodoo happening with joints. For high res animation you generally use displacement maps for the big stuff, like muscles etc and bump for the wrinkles. I don't know if normal maps are being used for high res animation and would be interested to find out.

Cheers

[ThE_JacO]

A more important question would be:
When to use the shading/rendering/lighting/specialities forums, and when to use GD?
The former when you have a question that's clearly shading/rendering related, the latter when you have something that fits GD, which isn't the universal catch-all of the forums, countrary to popular opinion ;)

[moogaloonie]

A more important question would be:
When to use the shading/rendering/lighting/specialities forums, and when to use GD?
The former when you have a question that's clearly shading/rendering related, the latter when you have something that fits GD, which isn't the universal catch-all of the forums, countrary to popular opinion ;)

Soooo... That Tim Allen, what a funny guy!

I will familiarise myself with this forum because, as much as I hate to admit it, you do have a point here.

[moogaloonie]

Normal maps give information on the x, y, and z axis. Bumps maps only give information on the normal axis of a poly. The results I am seeing in recent game competitions are pretty high frequency although there is no subdivision modifier on game models so you see voodoo happening with joints. For high res animation you generally use displacement maps for the big stuff, like muscles etc and bump for the wrinkles. I don't know if normal maps are being used for high res animation and would be interested to find out.

Cheers

Thank you. I think I may have just figured out "tangent space" also. I remember when maps were just textures and you could fake everything, but now the maps affect shape as well...

So what are the alternatives to "tangent space"? Screen space perhaps?

[Atwooki]

No way!
Screen-space is OK for non-tangent mapped assets, though nonetheless camera dependant (generally those which are non-organic), but tangent-space is the preferred (and much preferred if said engine can allow for even a 'low res' disp map to have a normal map overlaid upon it (engine, cpu overhead issues)..

moogaloonie
Soooo... That Tim Allen, what a funny guy!
Perfection ;)

[Kanga]

Thanks Wook,
Kind of suspected normal maps would be usefull in high res, specially for high frequency detail but never knew it for sure.

Cheerio.

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