Normal or Bump?

Spaceman · Post #1by **Spaceman** » 11.06.2007, 15:10

Hello

At the Motherlode i notice this: "Bump- and Normal-Maps: Both texture-types are used to generate fairly realistic shadows on the surface. To achieve this, Bumpmaps store the height of each point on the surface, while Normalmaps store the surface normals (hence the name), i.e. the vector perpendicular to the surface. You typically get smoother results with a Normalmap than with a Bumpmap."

Well, i'm a little comfused

. What of them is better, a bumbmap or a normalmap? And what is the big different between them? If i want to make the planets of Solar System more realistic, which of them is better?

Sory for my teribble english :oops:

Post #2by **chris** » 11.06.2007, 17:55

You should use normal maps rather than bump maps. Internally, Celestia always uses normal maps. A bump map is converted to a normal map when the file is loaded. If you just use a normal map to begin with, you can avoid the extra conversion step at load time. Also, the the bump map to normal map conversion that Celestia does is generally lower quality than the conversion performed by other tools such as Fridger's nmtools (http://www.celestialmatters.org.)

--Chris

BobHegwood · Post #3by **BobHegwood** » 12.11.2007, 14:49

Can I ask how one creates a NormalMap?

Just curious. Thanks, Bob

Post #4by **t00fri** » 12.11.2007, 15:27

BobHegwood wrote:Can I ask how one creates a NormalMap?

Just curious. Thanks, Bob

with the nmtools, of course ;-)

. There is also my tutorial in the CM forum , not just the download of the ready to go tools.

Bye Fridger

BobHegwood · Post #5by **BobHegwood** » 12.11.2007, 17:09

Okay, thanks very much Doctor.

I'll be getting to that as soon as I get finished installing/modifying
the rest of the 100+ add-ons, textures, etc. I have downloaded. It's
my full-time occupation right now. :wink:

Well, that, and re-installing Celestia in Vista every day or two.
Hee, hee.

PlutonianEmpire · Post #6by **PlutonianEmpire** » 15.12.2007, 19:16

BobHegwood wrote:Okay, thanks very much Doctor.

I'll be getting to that as soon as I get finished installing/modifying
the rest of the 100+ add-ons, textures, etc. I have downloaded. It's
my full-time occupation right now.

Well, that, and re-installing Celestia in Vista every day or two.
Hee, hee.

Sorry to drag the thread off topic but, why do you need to re-install celestia every day on a computer with windows vista?

BobHegwood · Post #7by **BobHegwood** » 15.12.2007, 21:14

PlutonianEmpire wrote:
Sorry to drag the thread off topic but, why do you need to re-install celestia every day on a computer with windows vista?

I DON'T now...

Just when I first got the thing, I kept having crashes, and the
firmware only allows this particular PC to run Vista. I did not
know that before I tried to install XP on it. :wink:

So I had to re-install Vista four times, and Celestia five times. After
HP finally got caught up with their software and drivers, and Vista
contributed over 70 updates from the Windows end, the thing works
great now.

Take care, Brain-Dead