Baking Normal Maps from Height… > > >Baking Normal Maps from Height…

Baking Normal Maps from Height Maps in Substance Painter

missuskissesmissuskisses Posts: 918
in The Commons

So, I keep finding these discussions where people are advised to simply export maps in Substance Painter and the height maps would be converted to normal maps. However, I've tried various export settings, and all I get for the normal maps is a plain blue file. Does anyone happen to know what I'm doing wrong? 

I have height maps in a fill layer.

Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • KetsyColaKetsyCola Posts: 86

    It sounds like you don't have a normal map baked before you export. If you don't have an actual normal map channel, it'll export as a blank. Try baking a normal map (make sure you don't bake anything else unless you want all other maps replaced), and exporting all your textures. Substance Painter should convert your height map to normals and combine upon export.  If that still doesn't work, I suggest asking the Substance people about it.  I hope this helps, though!

  • missuskissesmissuskisses Posts: 918
    KetsyCola said:

    It sounds like you don't have a normal map baked before you export. If you don't have an actual normal map channel, it'll export as a blank. Try baking a normal map (make sure you don't bake anything else unless you want all other maps replaced), and exporting all your textures. Substance Painter should convert your height map to normals and combine upon export.  If that still doesn't work, I suggest asking the Substance people about it.  I hope this helps, though!

    Sorry, I'm still a noob in SP, so not sure I understand, since I see people saying that exporting is baking the normal map. If that's not the case, how do I "bake" a normal map with a height map? Thanks so much for responding!

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,053

    SP will save two different Normals.

    The first is usually called SOMETHINGSOMETHING-Normal. It's based entirely on whatever you put in the thing's Normal channel.

    The second is usually called SOMETHINGSOMETHING-OpenGLNormal. It's a combination of Normal and Height (and I think maybe other stuff). This is the one you want.

     

  • missuskissesmissuskisses Posts: 918
    edited February 2020

    Thanks, you guys!!

    OK, this is a little embarassing, but it turns out my problem was that the obj file export settings from DAZ weren't quite right and SP was not recognizing the UV correctly. I've got it working so that normal maps are baking upon exporting when I load a height map.

    That said, I'm working with a G8F figure, and it looks like the normal maps aren't lining up at the seams, even though the height maps do. Is this a directional lighting type of problem? Not sure what to do about that...any ideas?

    Thanks again in advance.

    Post edited by missuskisses on
  • KetsyColaKetsyCola Posts: 86
    edited February 2020

    If the seams are the only areas affected, it could be a padding issue. When baking your maps, you can increase the baking to extend a given number of pixels beyond each uv island. This is useful when you want a smooth transition between uvs without having noticeable seam lines.

    Post edited by KetsyCola on
  • KetsyColaKetsyCola Posts: 86

    I found this thread that might be of use to you. If the padding doesn't help, something in this thread might: https://polycount.com/discussion/175538/is-my-tangent-basis-un-synced

  • missuskissesmissuskisses Posts: 918

    Thanks so much; I will check that out!!

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