Quote - Hi. I'm unlucky with normal maps. While displacement is a resource hog at least I can control it. Not the normals.

And for some reason it doesn't seem to work either :/

The top is with displacement, bottom is normal map. It should look somewhat bumpier.

I didn't catch where the top part was posted, but normal maps can get fantastic results with the Reality/Lux combo, stand alone or used with displacement maps. 

If you already have them, they show up in the Modifier tab in reality. If the box is checked for normal maps and grayed out, you can uncheck it and adjust the value as needed, then recheck it.

Within this thread, normal maps have been explored at some length. In fact, I put a tut on their creation using your general texture map and converting to both a bump and normal map using GIMP, on page 21 towards the bottom. A few members posted some alternative software on the next page for normal map creation as well, if memory serves. Should get you started at least! 

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