Baking normal map - distance and bias difference?

I have been trying to figure out what’s the difference between Distance and Bias in the baking options. I read the manual, but it’s still unclear to me.

Can anyone explain it with practical example, please? (doesn’t have to be a .blend file)

Thanks.

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distance is the maximum height for the bumps in the created normal map like dist = 1 BU or blender unit usually !

but you can always experiment to see what you get !

for normal map don’t forget there is a limit to the maximum distance to get a nice 3D effect!
if you need more then you may have to go with displament map !

salutations

thanks, but still sounds confusing… Bias works like a Cage mesh. Distance just introduces artifacts :frowning:


Z-step here in example is .1 BU. So it would be “Bake on Object what found starting from Distance up to Bias”

anyone has something on this bias thing ?

dist is the maximum height for baking anything higher won’t appear in the final bake image !

thanks

@ eppo: Are you aware that your normal map is wrong?

@RickyBlender: Bias is essential when baking floating geometry.

ok but what is it this bias thing?

thanks

@motorsep - it might look (and be) wrong coz numbers are a bit extruded and there’s no slope on sides. Might be normals issue.
Still, when you bake something, what falls between Distance and Bias is what will be baked. Nothing below Distance, all clipped on Bias level.

Edit: Red is what will be baked, so in order to get all shape - increase Bias and lower Distance