Normal vs. Bump/Height maps

[hoodoo_man]

Hi all,

 

This is something that's been bothering/confusing me since I first encountered a NIF file in Oblivion. How do you guys go about making actual normal maps without producing a grayscale bump map first? That's what I always ended up doing--while I was making the texture. Duping the diffuse/main texture map, desaturating it, and running it through a normal map filter does not produce good results. I think everyone knows that by now :wink:.

 

If you do end up just converting a bump map to a normal map--why? What makes a normal map better than a bump map--I know it's because that's what Bethesda uses, but why did they chose to go that route? I've looked at the channels of a normal map, and they don't make that much sense to me. It almost seems like a bump map done in RB. What is gained from this? Am I missing something major--it wouldn't be the first time :P !

 

Also, if people do mostly end up converting bumps to normal maps--why does the filter work so badly the other direction--i.e. producing washed out, barely visible results? Do you just get a larger gamut from normal maps? Inquiring minds--or at least me :wink:--really want to know.

 

Thanks!

 

Hoodoo Man