These images show the Normal Maps after they have been correctly imported into UDK, and we can now see that it is of a much higher quality, with no visible texture seam; just as it should be.
12 February 2012
UDK Normal Map Research
When importing Normal Maps into UDK, and even between programs such as 3Ds Max, Softimage XSI, and even Mental Ray Render Engine, we found that they all act differently. To solve these problems, I needed to conduct some research to finally figure out what needs to be done to Normal Maps for each program, especially between Maya 2012 and UDK Sept 2011. This research will be submitted as a separate research document with the main body of work for the game demo at the end.
The two images above show what happens in UDK when a Normal Map is simply applied to a static mesh once the channels have been flipped in Photoshop to turn them the correct way around. The quality, as you can clearly see, has much to be desired, and also clearly shows the texture seam which appears seamless in Maya. This was in fact an old problem we had during the creation of the 'Sun City' game demo last year.
