Adding volume to normal maps (Zbrush)

[Slaught]

I modeled a head got it into Zbrush and generated a normal map for ingame use with UT3.

As you can see comparing it with a UT3 normal map it lacks a lot of volume.

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/8059/snormale3bn5.jpg

The details look okay but the larger forms appear to be very flat.
I´ve tried playing with the sliders but it barely made a difference.

Is there any way I can make the large basic forms pop out some more?

[SyaPed]

This maybe? Poop's Tutorial (http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/tips/normalmap_deepening.jpg)

It might look like it has less volume though because the difference between your hi and lo meshes is less than the UT3 one.

[Ryan Clark]

You can open your normal map in CrazyBump for post-processing. You can adjust strength, introduce lower-frequency detail, etc. Should give you better quality than just overlaying in photoshop.

www.crazybump.com (http://www.crazybump.com)

[Scott_W]

The technical artists over at Project Offset have a Photoshop action that will let you adjust the normal map intensity (by duplicating the normal map itself or by using an overlay) without killing detail. The action script is at the end of the article: http://www.projectoffset.com/blog.php?id=74

[pior]

Well if your lowpoly mesh is more dense that UT3s its just normal that your normalmap seems more flat. Less information needed basically.

[Neox]

hm zbrush normalmaps always appeared less deep then normalmaps from max or cryteks polybump, haven't tested it in years, though but last time i used z for normalmap generation all normalmaps where really flat (back in zbrush 2 times...)

[Husch]

Did you use Zmapper to generate the normalmap?

[Slaught]

Thanks for the help guys.

I used Zmapper with the second subd level...didn´t know it affects the normalmap.
I generated it with my basemesh and everything looks fine now. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Ruz]

yeah just to reiterate that the normal map represents the 'difference' between the high and low mesh.
if you render the normal map from level five and your highest level is 6 , you will just get surface/micro detail in your normal map.
The greater the difference between the low and high, the more volume your normal map will appear to contain.