[Plugin] Normal Map Maker
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 ah...  But a skewed texture only needs three co-ordinates - why are these troublesome for triangles? 
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 @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 ? 
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 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
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 It's distortedthen - 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...  
 It would greatly improve my OBJexporter and some 3rd party tools I am involved with...
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 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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 @aceshigh said: 1 - whats the advantage of normal map over bump and displacement maps (both of which can use the same grayscale bitmap)?  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. 
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 @tig said: The main issue is how do I tell if a face's material's texture is 'distorted' and needs this extra step...  
 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 
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 @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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 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? 
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 @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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 hi, did you look in the right place? 
 UI.menu("File").add_item("Export normal map")
 john
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 Didier's version says this quite clearly 
 @unknownuser said:You'll find the command under the **File** menu -> Export normal map
  
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 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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 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. 
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 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?) 
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 I believe this is the procedure: - 
Make a rectangle with a greyscale texture in the z direction, scale it to 1.001 to ensure the top face is white 
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Make the texture a projection 
  
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Select and apply the texture to the model 
  
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Set the time to noon, date to 3/21, location to near the equator (in File, Geo-location). Set light & dark to 100 
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With a parallel projection and no edges, the top view is your bump map 
  
 
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 You can do the same without a texture, use white Fog on black geometry. 
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 @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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 @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!    
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 great plugin and real deserves to update :] ideas ;] 
 -read well smoothing groups!
 -Z-grab [without the need of the selection of the polygons; works with components and groups]- AO version hehe [dream:p]
 
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