Why is my Normal map not working?

Question

Only Bump seems to be showing the concavity I'm looking for (not with the same map, I use an inverted version of the B&W spec map you see in the nodes setup). But the moment I switch to Normal (the nodes setup below), not only the concavity won't show, but the glossiness is gone!. This Bump is not too shabby, but Normal is supposed to be better. Plus not knowing why is not working is killing me!
Should you want to inspect a simple blend file I made, by all means!

Thanks in advance guys!

JDL

Image texture nodes with normal maps loaded should be set up as Non-Color Data. — Mr Zak, Aug 20 '15 at 16:00
Also in addition to Mr Zak's comment the normal map is not normalized, it is too strong, which results in black glossy shader (so no glossiness). — Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny, Aug 20 '15 at 16:08
@Jerryno How can the normal map not be normalized? I'm pretty sure the output of a normal map node is always normalized. — PGmath, Sep 21 '15 at 00:24
@PGmath in RGB image each channel can have value of 1.0. That can add up to a normal vector length of > 1 (1.73). The base of vectors can be also left hand or right hand and I've seen some pretty nasty normal maps with shuffled or mirrored channels. I doubt the normal map node is all_powerful and always gives a nice output. — Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny, Sep 21 '15 at 07:15

David Prentice · Answer 1 · 2015-09-21T05:02:10.110

1

As the others have said change your normal map image from "Color" to "Non-Color Data". Also your normal map should be hooked up to the diffuse through the normal dot AND the normal dot on the glossy shader.

edited Sep 21 '15 at 05:02

answered Aug 21 '15 at 05:51

David Prentice

807
2
10
18

It should actually be plugged into both the diffuse and glossy shaders. – PGmath Sep 21 '15 at 00:22

Why is my Normal map not working?

1 Answers1