Loading Multiple Maps?
First of all, congratulations on version 3!
I've read the Docs, but can't seem to find what I would like to know. I use DAZ Studio, and quite often a material has a map in the Diffuse channel and a Bump map in the Bump channel.
Now I can load the Diffuse map in Shadermap, but I would also like to load the Bump map and then create a Normal map from those two loaded maps.
Just how do I go about it?
Thanks in advance.
I've read the Docs, but can't seem to find what I would like to know. I use DAZ Studio, and quite often a material has a map in the Diffuse channel and a Bump map in the Bump channel.
Now I can load the Diffuse map in Shadermap, but I would also like to load the Bump map and then create a Normal map from those two loaded maps.
Just how do I go about it?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
Hi,
First, I am not sure what a bump channel is. I am going to assume that it is a Displacement Map in the Alpha channel of the Color / Diffuse map? If so then you can generate a normal map by:
1. Loading the Color Map (with alpha Displacement) - do this as a color map from the Start Screen.
2. Select the Normal Map and drag it's input from the Displacement Map to the Color Map.
3. Change the Input Property in the Normal Map properties to use Alpha.
4. Uncheck Preserve Alpha in the Normal map properties.
Here are images showing the above steps. The flower image has a displacement / height / bump grayscale map embedded in the alpha channel of the image file.
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If this is not what you meant and you simply want to load two images (color / diffuse) and (height / bump) into ShaderMap then you will need to use the Advanced Setup.
1. From the Start Screen, click the Advanced button on the bottom right of the window. This will take you to an empty project.
2. The Add Node dialog will be visible. Click to add source Color Texture then locate the diffuse image.
3. Move your mouse over an empty cell in the Project Grid and press the + button. Add the source displacement map to the project.
4. Again add another map, this time the Normal Map from Displacement . You may need to drag the normal map's input to the displacement map after adding it to the project grid.
5. After this you can create a new standard material in the Material Visualizer and set it up to include these three maps. Drag the material onto any of the default geometry.
Let me know if this worked for you.
_NEil
The following images are a typical example. The first image is a coloured texture in the Diffuse channel.
And this is from the Bump channel:
As you can see, two different texture images. Now I believe creating a Normal map of both images is better than just from one, and that is what I want to do.
Thanks again.
Okay that makes sense. You can generate normal maps from both bump and diffuse then blend them together to get unique results. Here is an example setup:
Is that in Advanced Setup? I'm trying to gauge from your screenshot.
Yes, Advanced Setup is a good way to setup custom projects. Keep in mind Advanced just means that you are starting with an empty project and it is up to the user to setup the nodes. See Docs : Start Page.
In the above example I actually did the following:
1. Loaded the Diffuse as a color maps then deleted AO and Specular.
2. Added the Bump / Disp
3. Added the Normal from Disp
4. Added the Blend Normals from A, B.
It's pretty easy to setup.
It seems that there is a possible bug when saving the Blended Normal map. If saving as a new map (new filename), it saves fine. However, when selecting an existing Normal map file, Shadermap asks if you want to overwrite. Select Yes, and then save. At this point Shadermap 3 crashes.
Could you please tell me the exact steps you used to produce this error. Including file formats and export settings. Thanks, I'm trying to reproduce this crash.
_NEil
I reinstalled Windows (I do that a few times per year) and now Shadermap doesn't crash anymore.