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Normal map rendering wrong in LightWave


philnolan3d
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I'm a little rusty with exporting. I did a 3D scan of a banana for fun. I brought it into 3DC and did retopo, UV, and baked the textures. It looks great in 3DC! So I export, load it into LightWave and it looks good in Modeler, but when I try to render parts of it have bad shading. I narrowed it down to the normal map. Any thoughts on what it could be?

banana_3DC_01.jpg

banana_scan_render_wip_01.jpg

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look as Y channel inverted...

 

* Gemini answer: (hope this help)

When exporting normal maps from 3DCoat for use in LightWave, you typically need to invert the green channel (Y-axis) of the normal map in LightWave's material settings. 
This is necessary because 3DCoat defaults to a +Y (green up) normal map orientation, while LightWave's normal map implementation often expects a -Y (green down) orientation. 
 
Steps for Proper Export and Import
  1. In 3DCoat: Export your model (OBJ format is often recommended for compatibility) and the associated normal map texture. 3DCoat's default export settings for normal maps usually work, but be mindful of the +XYZ orientation.
  2. In LightWave Layout:
    • Load your exported low-polygon model.
    • Open the Material Editor for the surface.
    • Add a Normal Map node (or equivalent bump node configured for normal mapping).
    • Load your exported normal map image into an Image Editor and connect it to the Normal Map node.
    • In the Normal Map node's properties (or the image node's settings, depending on the LightWave version and workflow), find and enable the option to "Invert Y" or "Flip Green (G) Channel". This corrects the axis difference between the two applications.
    • Ensure the texture image node for the normal map is set to Linear Color Space (or non-color data) to prevent incorrect color correction from being applied, which is standard practice for normal maps in most render engines. 
By inverting the Y channel, you ensure the normal map correctly describes surface details in LightWave's coordinate system, preventing lighting errors and inverted shading. 
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Thanks a lot. I'll check what songs I used and adjust. 

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So here are the export settings I used. I don't see where to set +Y / -Y. Turning invert Y on or off in LightWave changes the render but it's still not right. It seems like only some UV islands have a flipped normal map. 

3dc_export.png

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As I know it is ok, LightWave defaults to using OpenGL normal maps.

It is ok on Modeler but wrong in Layout ? this is strange... :unsure:

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Well you can't see normal maps rendered in Modeler so Layout is the only one relevant. 

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Can you share the expot model to takw a look ?

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Try exporting without subpatches & turning on Use Source Position

image.png

 

I have imported the lwo into Blender, but cant find any issue

image.png

 

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