ImsumDave Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 (edited) I've been having this issue for a while now. I have a few ideas as to what is causing the issue, but no idea if it can be fixed. The issue can be seen here:http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9577/tesv20121012223724088.pngand here (left weapon's blade):http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6816/tesv20121012223909366.png As far as I know, I haven't seen artifacts/pixelation on vanilla normal maps, at least not to this extent. I don't know how the dds image compress works, but when I open up the normal map dds files in PS gradients do have some pixelation. I would love to work this out. Any help is appreciated. Edited April 15, 2013 by ImsumDave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonslayer2k12 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I tried getting rid of that in ps with surface blur filters or just any other blur filters after selecting the specific areas that are blocky on the normal maps. Altering the default normals is one thing but making your own is another. The normal filter that works with photoshop is not as good as making normals with 3d modelling programs like mudbox or 3dsmax or maya. What I do because I don't have those fancy modelling programs is overlay the ps normal map filter results on the default normals and then vary their degrees of opacity depending on the situation. So I can get some of that default normal showing through my new normal just copy and paste but really blur filter is your only choice right now in ps without knowledge of any fancy tricks in ps. I noticed that the blocks are worse when you upsize a lower res default normal to fit your higher res diffuse. Also blurring the whole normal slightly works sometimes but some normals have lighter areas that are almost erased by blurring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImsumDave Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 (edited) snip -- not relevant information Edited April 15, 2013 by ImsumDave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImsumDave Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 (edited) I have a small update. There is some pixelation in the areas with the artifacts pictured. A least that simplifies the issue, but makes it almost unfixable. Apart from upscaling the uncompressed normal maps to 4096x4096, not much can be done. I thought I had already tried that, but I'm unsure. Maps of that size aren't really practical. EDIT: The only solution or work around I've found is to use fairly high resolution textures in the problem areas, don't have any normal map information in the problem areas, or just forget about using cube maps that give a very reflective or chrome-like look. Edited April 15, 2013 by ImsumDave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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