normal maps

[Vendetta Fhang]

i have a normal map but when i plug it in there is no visible difference on the object. This is my first attempt at nrml in sl so other than the videos of people doing the same thing im not sure if i missed a setup or not.

[Drongle McMahon]

It might help if you put an image of your normal map (reduced if nevessary) her. Meanwhile, with the default settings for evrything else, the effects of normal maps are often hard to see, especially if there is a didtracting diffuse tecture. S if you want to exaggerate the effects, st the diffuse texture to blank, with whatever color you want; set the specular map to blank and then diak up the environmental slider to >150. Then switch between your normal map and the blank normal map, or look at a duplicate mesh with blank normal map. If you don't want the environmental shading, then dial up the glossiness slider to b120 and put some simple local lights next to your prim. Mover the lihjt(s) around to see the specular highlihjts move, and compare with what you see with the blank normal map. Learning how to get good effects in both daylight and local lighting can require a lot of experimentation.

Oh, ad by the way - you won't see any of these effects unless you have enabled Advanced Lighting in the graphics preferences.

PS. If your normal map has an alpha channel (specular exponent map), you will need to make sure it's completely white or has some bright areas in order to see the specular highlights. A missing alpha channel behaves like a completely white one.

[Vendetta Fhang]

i already tried it with no dif. and there were no results. if i put the nrml on just a flat prim if showed up but not on the model i made for it. The Uv's are layed out perfectly and they are not reversed. I have advanced lighting on. 


these two are when i put a dif map on it only that i had simply baked the nrmls into

 

 

These are the ones where i placed the nrm map into the object

[Rhys Goode]

Sometimes the normal map can be hard to see (and its literally impossible if you do not have the advanced lighting model enabled on the preferences>graphics tab)

 

Here is a link to a detailed example of using the SL materials.  http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Case_Study_-_Example_wood_crate_using_materials

 

 You can even get a free copy of the finished crate from MarketPlace:  https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Materials-Example-Crate/4968980

[Vendetta Fhang]

i already have that on as i stated earlier but its clearly not the problem. Not even my diffuse texture is showing up properly.

Idk if it has to do with the mesh itself that sl is giving me such trouble because here is the exact same nrm applied to an sl prim and it works

[arton Rotaru]

If the diffuse doesn't work already, then the mesh most likely lost the UV data during upload.

I experience this every now and then with meshes exported from 3ds Max. When I forget to assign a material ID, or something, the UV data doesn't make it over to SL.

Might be good to know which software do you use to create your meshes, to give any advice.

[MiliMigli]

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Vendetta Fhang wrote:

i already have that on as i stated earlier but its clearly not the problem. Not even my diffuse texture is showing up properly.

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Is it possible that you have more than one UV layout/map for your mesh in your 3D modeler? If so it sounds like the wrong one got used when exporting for SL.

This would explain why the normal and diffuse are not getting assigned the way you intended .

[Drongle McMahon]

I agree. Since the diffuse isn't mapped properly, it has to be missing or incorrect UV map. If the collada contains multiple UV maps, SL will use only one of them (the last in the file in my experiments, but I can't say that's always the case). Vendetta, you need to tell us which software was used if you want instructions for removing the wrong UV map.

[Vendetta Fhang]

Im using maya and there was no second uv set. I think sl simply didnt bring it in. I started a new scene and imported the file and re uved the object and the new import is working fine. Thanks everyone for you help wish sl was less of a pain sometimes