Skip to main content
A
Alena_16
Participant
January 21, 2022
Question

Incorrect display in 3d view

  • January 21, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 539 views

After the last update of the program in 3d view, the material stopped being displayed correctly, I can't understand what's the matter, please help me figure it out.

Mac Os Big Sur Operating System

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Luca Giarrizzo
Community Manager
Luca GiarrizzoCommunity Manager
Community Manager
January 24, 2022

Hello,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us, and providing a helpful image demonstrating the issue.

 

This looks like a Height map being used to drive tessellation displacement, yet without providing the normals to match the height data.

Make sure the image passed as a height map is also connected to a Normal node - or Height to Normal World Units if you have the real-world measurements of the height data. Then connect the computed normal map to a Normal output.

 

I hope this is helpful and informative!

 

Best regards.

 

Luca Giarrizzo | Quality Engineer - Substance 3D Designer | Adobe
A
Alena_16Author
Participant
January 24, 2022

Hello,

Thanks for your answer, but it doesn't work.
Tell me, what else could be the reason?

Luca Giarrizzo
Community Manager
Luca GiarrizzoCommunity Manager
Community Manager
January 24, 2022

Hello,

 

The height data is being passed directly to the Normal output. In this case, the resulting normal vectors will be incorrect and the model will be shaded incorrectly (learn more below). The height map needs to be processed to be converted into a usable normal map, using the Normal node as shown below.

 


A normal map represents a mesh's normals per pixel of the texture. Normals are vectors representing the direction a part of a mesh is facing, so it is shaded accordingly by the rendering engine.

 

Since it provides only a direction it always has a magnitude (or length) of 1.0, and its XYZ coordinates are mapped to the RGB channels of a color image, where coordinate 0 for the vector is mapped to the value of 0.5 in the image.

 

The purpose of the normal map is to replace the existing normals per vertex of the mesh into new ones per pixel of the texture in order to fake details. In tangent space - e.g. relatively to the local surface of the mesh, an unmodified normal points straight up, which is a vector of coordinates XYZ (0, 0, 1). Because of how these coordinates are mapped on a normal map, the result is RGB (0.5, 0.5, 1), hence the purplish hue that unmodified normals have on a normal map.

 

This is a very short primer on normal maps, but I hope it is still helpful and informative!

 

Best regards.

 

Luca Giarrizzo | Quality Engineer - Substance 3D Designer | Adobe
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices