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    [Plugin] Normal Map Maker

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    • TIGT Offline
      TIG Moderator
      last edited by

      And it's the skewed one we want! πŸ˜’

      TIG

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      • thomthomT Offline
        thomthom
        last edited by

        ah... 😳

        But a skewed texture only needs three co-ordinates - why are these troublesome for triangles?

        Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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        • TIGT Offline
          TIG Moderator
          last edited by

          @thomthom said:

          ah... 😳
          But a skewed texture only needs tree co-ordinates - why are these troublesome for triangles?

          Maybe I use the wrong wording... it's textures that are somehow rotated/skewed/sheared that need four UVs ?

          TIG

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          • thomthomT Offline
            thomthom
            last edited by

            Only distorted textures needs four points.

            Normal size (based on material width and height): 1 point
            Uniformly scaled: 2 points
            Non-uniformly scaled: 3 points
            Skewed - sheared: 3 points
            Distorted: 4 points

            Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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            • TIGT Offline
              TIG Moderator
              last edited by

              It's distorted then - do you mean that we CAN export these already using a TW and the material's actual face front-material?
              If so, how do we 'know' a face has a 'distorted' texture as opposed to a 'skewed' or 'rotated' one ?
              Let's say I have a face with a material that has its texture distorted and some other faces use that material 'undistorted'.
              The material is exported 'undistorted' and used with most faces with the simple 3-point UV-mapping...
              I need to know how to find which face has which type of texture, then if it's distorted then export that texture as a 'variant' using the TW with the very face, and then use that image-file for that face in the exported data.
              Is this what the built-in OBJ-Exporter does when it makes distorted texture files for some faces...

              The main issue is how do I tell if a face's material's texture is 'distorted' and needs this extra step... πŸ˜•
              It would greatly improve my OBJexporter and some 3rd party tools I am involved with...

              TIG

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              • A Offline
                AcesHigh
                last edited by

                sorry for the stupid question but...

                1 - whats the advantage of normal map over bump and displacement maps (both of which can use the same grayscale bitmap)?

                2 - VRAY doesnt use normal maps, does it?

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                • thomthomT Offline
                  thomthom
                  last edited by

                  @aceshigh said:

                  1 - whats the advantage of normal map over bump and displacement maps (both of which can use the same grayscale bitmap)?

                  http://www.spinquad.com/forums/showthread.php?4478-Normal-maps-vs.-Bump-maps&s=157424c55a8e268f44d84e57618a04cb&p=54371&viewfull=1#post54371

                  http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z232/Z-trooper/Modelling/mappings.png

                  a) is a bump map
                  b) is a parallax/normal map
                  c) is a relief map (normal map with self shadowing)

                  @aceshigh said:

                  2 - VRAY doesnt use normal maps, does it?

                  Not sure what V-Ray 2 does - but the version V-Ray for SketchUp currently use doesn't.

                  Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                  List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                  • T Offline
                    tomasz
                    last edited by

                    @tig said:

                    The main issue is how do I tell if a face's material's texture is 'distorted' and needs this extra step... πŸ˜•
                    It would greatly improve my OBJexporter and some 3rd party tools I am involved with...

                    http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=23947&hilit=distorted&start=60#p204899

                    Author of [Thea Render for SketchUp](http://www.thearender.com/sketchup)

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                    • PixeroP Offline
                      Pixero
                      last edited by

                      @aceshigh said:

                      1 - whats the advantage of normal map over bump and displacement maps (both of which can use the same grayscale bitmap)?

                      A bumpmap is like: Hey, change your normal (surface direction) by this grayscale amount!
                      A normal map is more like: Yo, use this normal instead of your old one!

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                      • T Offline
                        tspco
                        last edited by

                        I just downloaded and installed this plugin, but it doesn't seem to work, I am sure I missed something, nothing shows up in the plugins menu. Anybody have a step by step?

                        SU make 2017, /Twilight Render Hobby
                        Windows 10,64 bit,16GB ram, quad core Athlon 3.6 gHz proc. Anything else you want to know, ask me.

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                        • R Offline
                          RepulsiveBoy
                          last edited by

                          @tspco said:

                          I just downloaded and installed this plugin, but it doesn't seem to work, I am sure I missed something, nothing shows up in the plugins menu. Anybody have a step by step?

                          It doesn't work for me either 😒

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                          • D Offline
                            driven
                            last edited by

                            hi, did you look in the right place?
                            UI.menu("File").add_item("Export normal map")
                            john

                            learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                            • TIGT Offline
                              TIG Moderator
                              last edited by

                              Didier's version says this quite clearly
                              @unknownuser said:

                              You'll find the command under the **File** menu -> Export normal map
                              πŸ˜’

                              TIG

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                              • T Offline
                                Tuttlet
                                last edited by

                                Great to find this Normal Map script. Thanks.

                                I found that slows down if you have the Materials Windows open to "In Model" textures. So remember to have that closed.

                                Was there any way to get a bump map from this ruby? I found some threads relating to bump mapping in Sketchup, but nothing conclusive, unless I missed it
                                http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=18024&start=15
                                http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=16660&hilit=plugin

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                                • GaieusG Offline
                                  Gaieus
                                  last edited by

                                  You can quite easily create bump maps from (raw) geometry if you project a greyscale image from one side and then export an image from the other side.

                                  Gai...

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                                  • Bob JamesB Offline
                                    Bob James
                                    last edited by

                                    Just browsing through, got interested, and don't understand your reply.

                                    @gaieus said:

                                    You can quite easily create bump maps from (raw) geometry if you project a greyscale image from one side and then export an image from the other side.

                                    project (from what onto to what?) a greyscale image from one side (of what?)

                                    export an image from the other side (of what?)

                                    i7-4930K 3.4Ghz, 2x GTX780 6GB, 32GB DDR3-1600 ECC, OCZ Vertex 4 500GB, WD Black 3TB, 32TB NAS, 4x 27" Monitors, SpaceMouse Pro, X-keys XK-60

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                                    • T Offline
                                      Tuttlet
                                      last edited by

                                      I believe this is the procedure:

                                      1. Make a rectangle with a greyscale texture in the z direction, scale it to 1.001 to ensure the top face is white

                                      2. Make the texture a projection
                                        Bump12.jpg

                                      3. Select and apply the texture to the model
                                        Bump3.jpg

                                      4. Set the time to noon, date to 3/21, location to near the equator (in File, Geo-location). Set light & dark to 100

                                      5. With a parallel projection and no edges, the top view is your bump map
                                        Bump45.jpg

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                                      • thomthomT Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by

                                        You can do the same without a texture, use white Fog on black geometry.

                                        Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                        • T Offline
                                          Tuttlet
                                          last edited by

                                          @thomthom said:

                                          You can do the same without a texture, use white Fog on black geometry.

                                          Hey, that's even easier. Thanks.

                                          But aren't white areas usually interpreted as higher than black. I seem to get the right result with black fog on white geometry.

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                                          • thomthomT Offline
                                            thomthom
                                            last edited by

                                            @tuttlet said:

                                            @thomthom said:

                                            You can do the same without a texture, use white Fog on black geometry.

                                            Hey, that's even easier. Thanks.

                                            But aren't white areas usually interpreted as higher than black. I seem to get the right result with black fog on white geometry.

                                            Ah, yea - my logic is inverted this morning! πŸ˜„ 😳

                                            Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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