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P3D v4 Normal map strength

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Hi

Is it possible with MCX to change the normal map stregth? I can not find a setting that alters the map stregth with P3D PBR settings. I can see it can be done in 3ds material settings, but I do not use that program.
 

Pyscen

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Hello...

Unfortunately, the the strength of a normal map is when the normal map is created and not during the final conversion process within MCX ( such as, the NVidia Texture Tool or the GIMP normalmap tool).
 

arno

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Hi,

Where do you see the option in 3DS? I don't see it in the SDK documentation. If I know where it is, I can maybe see in which field of the X file it goes and if MCX supports it.
 

Pyscen

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Hello...

The wiki was kind of missed worded I think,... yet I can see how one could think that. It should now be referring to the "Bump Scale in Texture" and "Bump Scale" as in the P3D SDK. 2 different things, the "Bump Scale" in 3ds is referring to the number of times the Bump map is to be tiled. The other, "Bump Scale in Texture" is referring to the strength within Nvidia normal map plugin.
 

arno

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The PBR materials have NormapScaleX and NormalScaleY attributes, that are similar to the BumpMapScale attribute you are talking about I think.
 
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The NormapscaleX and Y settings change the tiling. I wanted to reduce the overall strength. Guessing it can not be done with the 'amount' setting, so will remake my normal maps so they work better with the PBR materials.
Cheers
 

arno

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Neither the old or the PBR material in the mdl has a setting to control the strength of the map AFAIK.
 
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Yes I redid normal map for concrete and tarmac I had. Worked fine with spec settings, but for PBR there was alot of glitter effect at low light angles.
 

Pyscen

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Hello...

Not sure what you're saying specifically, are you saying the normal map is causing the glitter effect or something else?
 
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My normal map I made for concrete surface was quite course. Look good close up and OK with spec from a distance. I found using it direct with PBR, at low light angles I found the contrast between high and low parts to be more pronounced so it looked liked dots sparkling on the surface, particularly on develop machine which has an older GTX750 card.

Making a less pronounced map now.

Just getting used to PBR quirks.
 
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Set up a good example to show what I mean. Top half of screen the ground is normal type specular material with a normal map attached. Bottom half is PBR material using the normal map that worked with spec material. You can see it is very exaggerated with PBR. The same PBR surface is on the taxiway in the distance and looks really rather horrible at these angles.
pbr ground.jpg


I find I have to make the normal map much more subtle to work at low light levels, but so subtle that there is little effect at other times of day. The usual flightsim trade-off.
 

Pyscen

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It's more likely having to do with your albedo map than your bump map. The bump map has nothing to with the sparkling effect you are getting. 3 maps that could affect what you are getting are albedo, metallic and or smoothness. Since you are using the same diffuse map as the albedo map, then any lighted or lighter color pixel could cause that. A true albedo map and diffuse map are not the same by definition.
 
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Learning. I read Albedo has directional lighting removed from the map. Can't just hook up the old Diffuse and expect good results. I can get acceptable results with a very weak Normal map, but will move onto making Albedo's now.

Thanks for the guidance. Not really an MCX thing of course. Maybe it could be moved to another forum for other PBR attempters to read. I'll post some pics of my progressive efforts. The PBR ground is worth it from what I have achieved so far.
 

Pyscen

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Much, much better for sure! No problem on the guidance, that why we are here!
 
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