Mesh import as bump/DSP

[leandrep17820829]

Hi, I've been checking for a while the possibility to import an OBJ/FBX and use it as a bump or displacement map, exactly like Xolotl Studio did with their now-outdated mesh importer ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2xgBg2YbIM ).

Now, I was under the impression that it was already a base functionality in more modern versions of the software, but I somehow can't seem to find any information about such a thing. With Designer, it's hard to know if it's because it doesn't actually exist or if, as everything else in the software, any documentation about the functionality is absent or severly lacking. Does anyone have any insight on the subject? 

[Luca Giarrizzo]

Hello @leandrep17820829,

Marco Vitale recently shared another implementation of such a node. Hats off to Marco!

In any case, you can use the Height map from mesh baker to compute a planar projection of a mesh: use a simple plane as the target low poly and the mesh as the source high poly. Learn more about baking in Designer here.

Make sure to place the plane so it does not overlap the mesh, orient it to match the desired projection direction and set the Frontal distance to a high enough value so the mesh is included entirely. Finally, you may want to set the Normalization method to Relative to Min/Max so the lowest sampled height is black and the highest is white.

I hope this is helpful!

Best regards.