cliss opened this issue on Jul 22, 2012 · 49 posts
Zev0 posted Mon, 23 July 2012 at 6:28 AM
Quote - Somebody else can probably give a more concise answer but here goes.
Normal maps have a very similar effect to bump maps in that they both affect the appearance on the surface without displaceing the actual mesh. Displacement maps displace the surface of the mesh. Displacement is better for details like wrinkles or ridges where as bump or normal maps are better for finer details like surface texture. I dont know for sure that there really is an 'edge' for bump vs normal, to me they seem like they give pretty much the same result and perfor equally well... but I'm no expert
Pretty spot on. In a nutshell, normal maps are like displacement without displacing the mesh surface. It catches lighting better with directional light than a bump map. I too am no expert but that is what I gathered from my experience working with it.