Easiest way to make a height map from a model?
polycounter lvl 18
This is something for some reason I should know, but haven't actually got around to figuring out, and it may seem pretty basic so stay with me.
I need to create some height maps for POM, but for some reason every effort I do to create them using various tools, xNormal/Crazy Bump etc, they never seem to come out how I would imagine them. The engine reads the height map as greyscale data, with white being the highest point and black being the lowest, its a standard POM solution. Which would mean then, that in the following example, the back would be a single shaded colour and the bricks would be a sort of gradient effect:
Yet for the life of me, I can't seem to get that result from using the mesh directly, or the normal map itself even... And its puzzling me, to be honest lol.
Like I said, this is as basic as it probably get, but I'm having a bit of a brain fart. So any help or tips would be awesome, cheers guys.
I need to create some height maps for POM, but for some reason every effort I do to create them using various tools, xNormal/Crazy Bump etc, they never seem to come out how I would imagine them. The engine reads the height map as greyscale data, with white being the highest point and black being the lowest, its a standard POM solution. Which would mean then, that in the following example, the back would be a single shaded colour and the bricks would be a sort of gradient effect:
Yet for the life of me, I can't seem to get that result from using the mesh directly, or the normal map itself even... And its puzzling me, to be honest lol.
Like I said, this is as basic as it probably get, but I'm having a bit of a brain fart. So any help or tips would be awesome, cheers guys.
Replies
When I use xNormal, my maps either come out garbled, or pitch black, for example:
Got it. For some reason, this time it all came out perfectly fine... Strange. Thanks for the help guys, like I said must have just been having a brain fart lol...
Isn´t it actually 0-255?
my god you've found a fatal flaw!! :P
Seeing EQ making a (very little) mistake, i just couldn´t resist myself:poly142:
Yeah, a planar map from the side with a gradient will work fine too, then you can just do a simple diffuse bake without worrying about height settings. Its a little more work though, so I probably would skip it and just do a few quick, small height test bakes, which would only take a few seconds.
Yes, 0-255. =P