Why are the normals making these trunks look flat

AbnerK

Hi,

I've been racking my brains try to work out why adding materials makes these trunks look flat with harsh shadows. It turns out that it's the normal map but why, I have no clue. Can anyone shed any light on what's happening and how I can fix it? The materials are 8bit png with the grayscale maps in grayscale mode. The normal map had info in blue the channel so, I removed that but, the problem hasn't gone away. I'd just accept it without the normal map but the normal map gives the micro details more depth. I just don't understand why the larger details are being flattened.

with normals

no normals

felis

I have no explanasion for why the normal map does that.

But you could try to increase the subD on the pants (convert to subD if they aren't already).

AbnerK

felis said:

I have no explanasion for why the normal map does that.

But you could try to increase the subD on the pants (convert to subD if they aren't already).

 I think you're thinking of displacement. Normals don't affect the mesh.