ZBrushCentral

Normal Map preview/display on Low Subdivision Mesh – HOW TO DO?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi everybody,
I was wondering, how I could check my newly generated Normal Map at my Mesh (Tool).

Example: I have 7 Subdivision Levels and pull it down to Level 1, then generate succesfully my Normal Map and try to watch the result (with Texture “ON”), but nothing happens with my LowPoly-View of the base mesh.
(I do NOT want to watch it only as a “diffuse” texture, I want to see/check the sculpting effect)

I know of course how to export it via GoZ to Maya, but I want to check it before.
The same check is also possible inside zBrush with Displacement Maps, but I didn’t found any helpful description about displaying Normal Maps on a SubDiv1-Mesh.

Thanks,
Alexx

Attachments

no normalmap visible ZBrush.jpg

#2

There is no normal map viewer in Zbrush.

#3

ok strange, but many thanks for reply.
so it’s only the way to check it later inside Maya.

#4

Generally you’re better off previewing the normal map in the target renderer / game engine that you plan on using. This is because different renderers might calculate the tangent basis differently, which could make a normal map look incorrect in the preview when it really isn’t (or vice versa - it might fool you into thinking the normal map will look good in your target engine just because it looked good in a different renderer’s preview).