Nvidia Photoshop plugin

Hey everyone.

I’m trying to create normal maps from bump maps, so I decided to download the Nvidia plugin for doing just that, only I’m not sure if it works on Macs. Does anyone know if it does?

When I download it I get a .exe file. This won’t work on macs will it?

If there is a way to get it working on macs, could anyone tell me in which folder I am supposed to place the plugin aswell (apologies, I’m very naive).

Thanks

EDIT: A little more information… when I click on the .exe file it launches photoshop and I am then presented with a window saying “Could not complete your request because the droplet file is damaged or was created with a previous version of photoshop.”

I am using Photoshop CS, so it’s a little out of date. Would this be a problem?

I strongly suspect it doesn’t work on macs :frowning:

I’ve searched for something else that will turn bump maps into normal maps, on mac computers, and found this

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Graphics/NormalMappr.shtml

only it seems like it’s no longer possible to download it. Argh!

Does any know of an application or plugin that works on macs and is available?

Try this one: http://homepage.mac.com/nilomarabese/Menu13.html

I found that one too but I had trouble getting it to work. There seems to be no information on how to use it, even though it appears very simple. Whenever I opened an image with NMG it seemed to be massively over scaled. I tried using jpegs at 512x512 pixels, converting to greyscale or just desaturating the colour… yet every time I tried something I would just get over scaled results or the application would just quit.

Could you possibly give me a simple example of how to use this correctly?

I’m also considering downloading gimp as I’ve read that there is an equivalent to the Nvidia plugin for it. However, downloading gimp for macs doesn’t seem to be as straight forward as I had thought due to it requiring X11 to be installed, which I know nothing about. The complexity is putting me off attempting this a little bit. Are there any Gimp users on Macs out there who could tell me if it is worth the hassle, and also if the normalmap plugin works on macs?

Sorry, I no longer have easy access to a Mac. I remembered doing the search and other alternatives coming up.

To be honest I don’t see a lot of alternatives coming up. The majority of links link to the NMG (normal map generator) which I’m struggling to get good results from. I discovered that it only accepts tiff files, but still the results are scaled incorrectly or just a mess.

There is one link to a thread about the ‘normalmappr’ which sounds promising, only the link at the bottom of the page to download it doesn’t work anymore:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/726000575831/p/2

does anyone have this app working? Is it possible to still get a copy of it somehow?

It’s extremely frustrating not being able to produce normal maps from bump maps on a mac. How do other mac users manage to do it?

I think there is a greyscale to normal map in xnormal.

www.xnormal.net

Unless I’m being stupid, this seems to be only downloadable for windows.

That’s a problem I’ve tried to find a solution to for a long time now. Sadly so far I haven’t found another slution as to use BootCamp (or Parallels) and either xNormal or the normalmap tools for Photoshop or GIMP. Yes - thre’s a Normalmap Plugin for GIMP but that’s also Windows only.

If only someone could complie it for Mac I’d really really be happy.
Unfortunately I am no programmer but only artist - I don’t know how difficult it would be to write a converter. But from What I understand the problem is the DirectX Preview which obviously won’t work for Mac. Yet I don’t really need the 3D preview stuff. Only a working converter. Don’t know how difficult that would be to create. :frowning:

I don’t even know much about bootcamp or parallels. Bootcamp is only on Mac OS X10.5 right? And you would need to buy a copy of Vista or Windows XP as well to get it working?

I’m still on OSX10.4 and can’t afford to upgrade at the moment so I think I’m a bit stuffed :frowning:

I did read on the official Crazybump forum, that the maker of it was at work on a Mac version, which would be brilliant to have! His post on his forum says that he started work on it around June 14th 2008, only he can’t really say how long it will take. I hope it’s not long though.

I have the normal map plugin running on my ubuntu 64 works great.

Allright - how did you do that?
I assume you built GIMP/the plugin yourself, right?

That’s not really an option for me, unfortunately. I know jack about all that …

motion blur no actually it was easy ubuntu had the package gimp plugin registry and I had it installed. Gimp 2.6.1 is great with it by the way.

+1 Me too - just reinstalled it after upgrading from 2.4.*

so if it works on ubuntu it should also work on macs?

If this is the case, could someone who has gimp working on a mac with the normal map plugin possibly give me a few directions as to how everything should be installed. I know very little about these sorts of things eg. X11, custom builds, where to place the plugins and such.

It would be a great help

So - has anyone found out something or did this thread die? :frowning:

If you are on an intel based Mac you should be able to use wine to extract the NormalMapFilter.8bf from the installer, copy it into your Plug-Ins/Filters directory.

For a ppc mac, cabextract may work.

Note: I highly suggest the use of NMG instead as not all of the features of the plugin will work on a Mac

http://homepage.mac.com/nilomarabese/Menu13.html

Allright I finally found somethin. Well - not really did I find it but rather asked around on a lot of forums. I finally came around asking Lisanet (from gimp.lisanet.de) to include the Normalmap Plugin in her next Gimp release. She was very kind and acutally did it. So for everyone like me who isn’t into compiling his/her own ports:

Go here and grab your Gimp with Normalmap Plugin.
http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/Overview.html

And if you like it - let her know how cool it was to inculde it, as well. :slight_smile:

Paint.Net has a normal map generator and it is able to save as DDS format.
Have to search for the dll in the forum, though.

Yes - but the same thing as with xNormal. It’s a Windows Program. :confused:
There are tons of windows applications and plugins - even loads of good ones.

The question in this thread was about a MacOS application or plugin.
So in case you don’t have parallels or VMware fusion … Gimp is the way to go, right now. :eyebrowlift: