I've baked a normal map from a much higher poly model in Blender, but when applying it in Poser I'm getting some pretty odd shadows happening. I've tried tangent space(which is what it should be) as well as gradient bump(looks better and has more effect), but either way I'm getting these jagged shadows.

Is there a setting I'm missing, or I am going about doing this the wrong way?

If I unplug the map the problem goes away...

Is your Gamma set to 1 for your map?

Use bump maps

But I'd use a math subtract set up if you are using high strength bump (which in that case use displacement with a subtract). Set gamma to 1 as hborre suggests in all instances.

Normal maps are too fiddly in Poser and hold no advantage over bump as far as I know.

I'v never seen normal's work right in poser

Normal maps can produce different results in Superfly, Firefly and Preview as the tangent basis in each is different - see this link http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Technical_Details#Tangent_Basis (Superfly uses MikkT which is the most common; Blender is probably using this for baking). Tangent basis is not the same as tangent space, and nothing to do with OpenGL/DirectX either.

Much simpler to use a height map in Poser ;)

Baked normals are really useful for making other maps to use when texturing though, e.g. curvature.

It doesn't work as expected in Firefly, but the shadows look good. In Superfly it just goes all wonky. I'll probably just convert it to a bump at this point. I've been fiddling with it for hours, and getting nowhere. It looks great in Blender, was hoping to get the same effect in Poser, but I may be hoping for too much.

You might have more success in Poser if you use Cycles materials rather than the Poser Root Node.

Normal maps are working pretty good in superfly, i am using on the most of my render normal maps.

Here you can see a very basic setup for normal maps. You can use normal maps only and you can use bump and normalmaps together.

caisson posted at 10:12AM Thu, 07 May 2020 - #4388359

Normal maps can produce different results in Superfly, Firefly and Preview as the tangent basis in each is different - see this link http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Technical_Details#Tangent_Basis (Superfly uses MikkT which is the most common; Blender is probably using this for baking). Tangent basis is not the same as tangent space, and nothing to do with OpenGL/DirectX either.

Much simpler to use a height map in Poser ;)

Baked normals are really useful for making other maps to use when texturing though, e.g. curvature.

Thanks for the link--good reading--clarified a few things for me.

NobbyC posted at 10:33AM Thu, 07 May 2020 - #4388418

Normal maps are working pretty good in superfly, i am using on the most of my render normal maps.

Here you can see a very basic setup for normal maps. You can use normal maps only and you can use bump and normalmaps together.

That helped. I had no idea there were all the cycles nodes in Poser now. I just got 11 few weeks back and haven't really had a lot time to be poking around under the hood yet. Simply using the cycles image and plugging into gradient bump did wonders. I had to push the value up a bit, but the improvement massive. Now my leather looks like someone has actually been walking in it, and is no longer stiff and plastic looking. Much thanks.

....now to get the thread looking right:

On your node setup, change the image texture for the normal map Color Source to none. That connection only feeds data, not color information. Also, uncheck the Reflection_lite_mult, you don't have anything really reflective on your object. This is a relic setting that is not really necessary anymore.

When you use "Image Texture" insted of "Image_Map" for Normalmaps, your set up must be:

• Vector - no input when your prop/figure is UV Mapped (Vector is the input for texture coordinates. By default this is set to UV coordinates in meshes)

• Color Space - must be "none" or "Non-Color Data" (For factors, bump or normal maps you should chose non-color data)

• Projetion - has to be "flat" (Flat will project the image flat onto the surface)

• Interpolation - can be "smart" (Cycles will decide which interpolation method to use) or "linear" (New pixels will get an even mix between their neighbors)

I like how your think Nobby. So I have a question for you now that I have the correct input and got that set up to my liking..... how does one achieve the translucency that occurs from behind the ears? I'm using the Physical Surface main node to set up my skin for my character!

Thank you!

Richard

Hi, think you are looking for something like this. This is "Tokyo" for V4 from Danae.

This is the setup for this render:

I put one "area light" behind the head.

And the shader setup is this:

For the face:

And for the ears:

I use "image map3" to control the amount of "subsurface".

On the ears i use a white mask for maximum "subsurface" and for the rest of the skin a "dark grey mask".

I set the "metallic value" to 1 and use the same mask to reduce the metallic effect (I hate the plastic gloss that came out normaly).

And here is the "specular / subsurface mask"

Thanks so much. I was following along from another thread using Baggin Bill's advice but then he sort of dropped out. Not that there wasn't any other good info there but you know, he's a master at this. SO thank you for your setup and advice. I'll take that and experiment. I do have the behind the ear thing figured out using the ScatterDistR_mm set to 5.000000 but only have basic maps plugged into the Color node of the Physical Surface node right now!

PS, thank you for the specular / subsurface mask! AWESOME!

Hi, the value 5.000000 for red is in my eyes a litle bit to high. With to high subsurface values you get an "wax effect" on your figure and high values are increasing the render time dramatic.

Those specular maps are often used in "DAZ world" to create " micro highlights by the skin reflection.

Since two years, i am not using "physicalSurface" any more. With "CycleSurface" i get much better reflections and have more control about the properties of the surfaces.

Hmmm, OK. I might give that a try then. I finally got an older figure character I created for Hivewire 3D's Dusk a while back called Tommy Toon set up in Poser and I copied my maps into the default Dusk material set up and it's quite dull to say the least so I know I need to go a different route as Tommy looked great in DAZ Studio iRay, in Poser he looks pretty pathetic! LOL

there already is a decent Cycles/Superfly SSS skin shader for EZSkin3 over at ShareCG. https://www.sharecg.com/v/85846/browse/9/Plug-in/Cycle-based-plug-in-for-EZskin3-poser11-only

I downloaded those but I have NO IDEA how to access the py once installed.

So here is what I have, trying to follow the install instructions. C:Program FilesPoser SoftwarePoser 11RuntimePythonposerScriptsScriptsMenu I put both the CycleMaterials.py and CycleSkin.py there.

When I use the Menu> Run Python Script option nothing happens. Works fine for bringing up the EZSkin dialog but I don't know if I'm supposed to run the CycleSkin.py through that or what. Please instruct me.

Thank you, Richard

Install to .. Runtime/Python/EZ Skin 3/Custom shaders/ (Or wherever you installed Ezskin3 .. directory name may not be exact as I have a habit of renaming things).. Once installed run EZ Skin 3 .. select plugin to use from drop down listing.

This is what I'm seeing and the cfg is grayed out.

OK, redownloaded the EZSkin script and reinstalled and it FOUND the other scripts and now I have them in the drop down. COOL!

Thanks for the help!