Using 32-bit normal maps in Substance Designer

Marco is correct.

Do you need to use any negative values? You can still use 32 bit floating point to avoid any stepping while keeping values in the 0-1 range as in the examples below.

Flat normals - simple flat reflection

Concave parabaloid - magnified reflection if factor is turned down in the tangent space normal rexture node. As factor increased, the image in the 'mirror' will flip both vertically and horizontally.

Convext parabaloid (image reduced in size i.e. wider view shown in reflection):

Dave

In tangent space your normal map is relative to the surface. So a range from [-1, 1] would result in artifacts, since most render engines would understand a negative normal vector pointing inside the model as "backface" and just cull it. The normals for a parabolic surface should look like this (excuse the bad quality, I'm not at my PC at the moment):

To generate your own parabolic Normal Map, you can use the Shape - Node in Designer, choose the paraboloid shape and plug it into a Normal Node, play with the strength, this should give you the desired effect.

All the best Marco

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

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