Bumpmap/normalmap issues

[rthorvald]

What is wrong with this bumpmap? The surface map is 100% white, and the bumpmap 100% black at the pole. But still, i get this fold at the pole. It does not show when the bumpmap is inactive. Why?

Also, what do i do to reduce that pinkish glow?


BTW, if someone wonder where the image is from, it?s Ishtar Terra on a terraformed Venus.

Something else: could someone point me to more info on how to produce normalmaps in Photoshop without the plugin (which does not work in OSX)? Anything on producing normalmaps in 2D software would be good. (I have read everything on this board i can find).

-rthorvald

[selden]

rthorvald,

What graphics hardware and OpenGL library version is on your system?

The purple/pink shading is usually caused by a buggy OpenGL library. This bug is most often seen on systems that have Intel graphics chips. Instead of using the normal map to produce hightlights and shadows for bumps, the OpenGL library is displaying it as a surface texture.

If this is your problem, and you can't get a modern, bug-free graphics driver, you'll have to disable GL_ARB_vertex_shaders. For details, see the "Preliminary User's FAQ" at the top of the Celestia User's Forum.

[rthorvald]

I have a ATI Radeon 7500 with 32MB VRAM, and as far as i kan find out, OpenGL 1.4 (according to Apple, this is what ships with OSX 10.3).

The Apple knowledge base leads me to believe that the software is the latest, and has hardware support for my card, which is a generation older. But i am no expert on this.

Thank you for yoyr swift reply. I have some testing to do, now

-rthorvald

[Guest]

I have a ATI Radeon 7500 with 32MB VRAM...

Hi rthorvald,

You might be fighting a loosing battle with your video card. I have an ATI Radeon 7500 64MB card on my system (Win ME) and normal or bump maps don't work in Celestia (1.3.1-1). I was thinking a driver update would help but when I contacted ATI tech support about this they said it's strictly a hardware issue, the 7500 does not support normal or bump maps.

If you hear or find out anyhting different, please let me know.

Dave

[DaveMc]

The above post was mine, Shatters logged me out...........again

Dave

[Guest]

A bump map is converted into a normal map internally by celestia. Normals maps are the purple colour you see. But they should not be shown in that way. There is something wrong with your drivers or the way you've set up the textures in your ssc.

[rthorvald]

Ok, if my graphics card does not support bumpmaps, i obviously don?t know how it should look. But something is definitely going on; shadows are deeper with the bumpmap active. I have posted two images to compare on/off, and also the ssc on this page: http://runar.thorvaldsen.net/celestia/temp/venustrouble.html.

The top image is without, the other with the bumpmap. The top one looks the same if i follow Selden?s suggestions above.

-rthorvald

PS: One good thing, though: now i know why my Mars looks so weird.

[Guest]

Well according to daveMc's post your hardware ie graphics card cant handle bumpmaps or normal maps. There's nothingyou can do except get a new card. Unless you've somehow managed to get bumpmaps working for a different planet?

[DaveMc]

First off, my bad on my original post . I was at work when I made it but when I got home and double checked my card, it's actually a Radeon 7000, not 7500. Sorry for the confusion.

rthorvald, what happens when you type [Ctrl-V] several times to cycle through the different render paths? With the 7000 my only choices are "Basic" or "Multitexture". If you see any additional OpenGL Vertex programs show up maybe the 7500 does indeed support normal and bump maps. ATI tech support should be able to tell you for sure.

Dave

[rthorvald]

Unless you've somehow managed to get bumpmaps working for a different planet?

Um, no... No magic here.
Maybe my last post was a bit diffuse. The last reply said the bumpmap should be shown in a different way than in the picture _with the hardware specs i have_. If so, i need to find out how/why, and what to do about it.

-rthorvald

[rthorvald]

what happens when you type [Ctrl-V] several times to cycle through the different render paths? With the 7000 my only choices are "Basic" or "Multitexture"

I get all three (basic, multitexture and OpenGL Vertex). Maybe the 7500 partially supports it, if that is possible. The results are weird, anyway.

If you see any additional OpenGL Vertex programs show up maybe the 7500 does indeed support normal and bump maps. ATI tech support should be able to tell you

Will try to find out!

-rthorvald