Where are the "Bump Maps" or "Normal Maps" in IRay?

JD_Mortal

I am having an issue with the "Bump-maps" or "Normal-Maps", where models created as adults, with excessive details painted in to the normal-maps are interfering with any youth adjustments.

To be specific, Victoria 7 with IRay skin, has cut-lines under the breasts. (That actually interferes with every single breast-morph.)

In the "Materials" for the Torso, there is no Bump-Maps or Normal-Maps settings. (Well, there is one related to Bumps, but removing the bump-image or setting the values to 0.00 does absolutely nothing.

The only way I can get around this, is to use the script in the IRay skins which completely removes the "Normal-Map", but then I lose ALL detail. There is no indication of where the image is, no option to edit it, and no settings in the materials page to adjust the strength, when the materials are setup for IRay. (May be there in 3DeLight, but it seems hidden, as if it is still rendering with 3DeLight and Iray materials, even though it only shows the IRay materials in the materials page. Might explain the odd rendering times and larger memory sizes too.)

So... How do I locate the "Normal-Map", to edit it and remove the horrible breast-cuts under the breasts and other general deforming bumps that are disrupting all morphs and just resulting in lumpy models, for anything other than Victoria 7.

NOTE: Also does this for eyes, feet and hands. (The tendons and wrinkles, which younger people do not have.)

mjc1016

Normal maps are an all or nothing item.  They are made to 'bake' in the height, so there is no strength/adjusting them.

JD_Mortal

You can adjust them, because they are images... any image editor can alter the shade-map grey-scale values.

Okay, well, where are they to edit? (In Daz3D, and in which folder location? Since Daz doesn't even tell you that there is one active, it can not direct you to the image to change or edit it. The loader is encrypted or zipped, and displays no image information.)

They don't show in the materials lists for any of the skins, when models are setup for IRay... Nothing even indicates they are being used.

Cris Palomino

Actually there are a number of ways to find the files.

If you hover over the normal map, or any other map, in the iray settings under surfaces, it will show you the path.

 

 

In DIM, you can do show Package files, which will show the paths.  Show Installed files will actually link to the files.

 

JD_Mortal

Ahhh... It's colored...

I saw "Normal Maps", but when I saw BLUE, I thought it was just the RGB color-value of BLUE, and using the BUMP to create the BUMPS, off that shade-value.

Tell me it isn't using RGB-space PNG/TIFF's to represent simple 256 greyscale values...

Cool... Odd setup, but now I know why I couldn't seem to find it. Thank-you, both of you.

Cris Palomino

http://blog.digitaltutors.com/bump-normal-and-displacement-maps/  It's good to understand the difference between these and when to use them.

kitakoredaz

One more ,,,

To directly serch  each image map, hover the mouse on each image of maps, as above menitoned, in surface tab>editor,

 then, click the small image,  it show option meanu,   >Browse" .  it open  the  directory of the map installed.

 (you may need to remember ,which image you need to edit, in the directory, but usually file name show,, which type of image map. too)

 

even though it is encrypted only  product, you can open image by your image editor, from the directory which DS show you.

(though I am windows user, then do not know mac can open them or not clear,,but usually it should work)

And if the mat use iray uber shader, normal map and bump map are  grouped as Base>bump section. but

displacement and cut-out opacity are grouped as Geometry section. after remeber group,  you can find each map  easy in surface tab.

 

JD_Mortal

Cris Palomino said:

http://blog.digitaltutors.com/bump-normal-and-displacement-maps/  It's good to understand the difference between these and when to use them.

Blah... Guess I have to use z-brush or get a converter for bump-maps then. I think I still have a program that does that.

Can hexagon convert bumps to normal maps? Or edit them...

I wish Daz had a normal-map painter built-in... That would make this so much easier. Just paint details right on the model itself. Or, in my case... Correct unwanted details and fix errors.

Cris Palomino

If you're on the PC, you could try this https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

There's also http://www.crazybump.com/

 

JD_Mortal

xD I just found this...

http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/

Szark

mjc1016 said:

Normal maps are an all or nothing item.  They are made to 'bake' in the height, so there is no strength/adjusting them.

But we can dial it up or down in Iray just not using 3DL > Uber Surface

Oso3D

JD: Yeah, and the nice thing about NormalMap Online is that you can adjust height and so on.

Iray actually has a 'normal strength' setting. I've generally assumed that's a height setting, but I honestly have no clue what it really does.

 

mjc1016

Szark said:

mjc1016 said:

Normal maps are an all or nothing item.  They are made to 'bake' in the height, so there is no strength/adjusting them.

But we can dial it up or down in Iray just not using 3DL > Uber Surface

Yes, in Iray you can...but it shouldn't be needed.

The whole idea of normal maps over bump maps is that they will represent the actual details from the hi-res mesh, because the 3 colors place them 'exactly'.   Messing with the 'strength' is like messing with the scale...

Of course that's assuming 'real' normal maps (baked from hi res meshes) and not converted from desaturated other image maps.