Hello all!
I am baking a normal map with the “32 Bit Float” so I can later dither it down to 8 bits to get rid of banding. (if anyone knows of other ways to bake in 32 or 16 bits, please let me know)
My issue: the 32 bit image is coming out pale. I exported it anyways and tried it on my game model. The RGB is off causing weird lighting issues.
How can I fix this?
The best,
-Jared
Have you tried tweaking the color management settings at all (or even turning it off altogether)?
It looks like this could be fixed by dialing down the gamma value on the result.
It has to be something in color management. The image you show on the right is in linear colorspace, which is what you want in normal maps and other non-color data images. The image on the right looks more like what you would get with an sRGB image.
i bake ONLY in 32 bit exr
MOST!!! image editors have “issues” displaying 32 bit data that is NOT between 0 and 1
the best software i have used for this is Nip2 ( free and runs on Linux , Apple, and Windows)
nip2 is the GUI to the image lib vips
http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/index.php?title=VIPS
that and the terminal ( test based program) gmic
gmic uses 32 bit float as it’s native format
http://gmic.eu/
and WHY dither ???
just use the normal everyday data math tools and "normalize it
– every tool for handling data has “libmath” built into it
QED
Thank you all for taking the time to respond!
Ah yep, you all are correct, I turned color management off and it fixed it! Although upon importing into Unreal, the colors are still off compared to the 8 bit one. So maybe Unreal reverses the RGB color correction curve?
How would I be able to add the RGB gamma curve to the bake so it looks like the normal map on the left?
John VV thank you for the links!
Although the first one, when I downloaded the windows installer it came with a “high risk virus”. Is it really virus, or just the application?
The reason for dithering:
Games can only support 8 bit normal maps. With the 8 bit bake, banding gets really bad. To fix that, one must bake a higher bit map then dither it back down. It will be noisy, but it will be much better then the banding.
Here is more information on it if you are interested 
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148303
as you might not know Microsoft has a "dry shucked corn cob shoved up it’s butt "
when the software is NOT
and if MICROSOFT dose not explicitly add a web site to a “WHITE LIST”
( and they will not if they do not OWN the site and software)
internet explorer then will say EVERYTHING NOT OWNED BY MICROSOFT IS A VIRUS
this is NOT A VIRUS!!!
Microsoft is LYING TO YOU AND IS PLAYING VERY BAD IN THE SAND BOX
– they really DO need there bottom SPANKED!!!
it is REAL SOFTWARE!!!
“nip2-8.0-setup.zip”
http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/supported/current/win32/
i have been using the “nip” gui to the vips image lib for almost 15 YEARS
it is a little “odd” to use and you will want to go through the guides and have a look on the “[B]blogspot” page
[/B]
Ah yes, although Avast is giving me the warning. Of course I am just checking encase the site got hacked. I remember with the Pu.ush service got a virus, it was quite a mess :S.
I will back up my photography then install it, it looks very promising. Thank you for the info!
ferrettank
if nip gives you to much problems just PM me
it operates a bit like a “spread sheet” for images
