Bump map

A material's albedo (left) compared to its bump map.

The above material in-game.

Textures often called Bump Maps, or Normal Maps are used to simulate three-dimensional details on a two-dimensional surface by manipulating its lighting.

Note:Static props using bump maps can not be lit per-vertex, except in .

Note:Bump maps cannot be used on decal textures, except in . In order for these to function properly, the surface that they are placed on must also have a bumpmap.

Format

Each pixel in a bump map contains the (x, y, z) coordinates that define a normalized vector.

Because of this each color channel in a bump map has a meaning:

Red

Horizontal facing (X axis)

• 0 = left
• 128 = forward, or facing viewer
• 255 = right

Green

Vertical facing (Y axis)

• 0 = up
• 128 = forward, or facing viewer
• 255 = down

Blue

Height (Z axis).

• 0 = facing 'in' to the texture, away from the viewer. This is a 'bad' value. Anything under 128 means that the surface should be facing away from the player, which is not possible.
• 128 = maximum depth capable of receiving dynamic light. It's a bad idea to go under this.
• 255 = facing 'out' of the texture towards the viewer.

Note:A flat bump map should be [128, 128, 255]. dev/flat_normal is a flat bump map present in every game.

The three channels represent a normal vector for every pixel which represents the direction that the pixel is facing in 3D space. This allows the engine to generate shadows and highlights on a two-dimensional surface, or give a 3D model more detail.

A bump map is largely useless for really flat surfaces like smooth concrete or metal, but even smooth concrete sometimes has enough depth to it to make one worthwhile.

Creation

A bump map should be rendered in Tangent space and use vector directions X+ Y- Z+.

Note:There are basically two sets of rules for normal maps: DirectX and OpenGL. Their interpretation of green channels are opposite. Source takes the former. Thus, the green channel may need to be inverted depending on the software used to create it.

Programs

Bump maps as created by various programs.

Various programs can automate the creation of bump maps, either by image analysis or by using 3D geometry the user provides.

2D

Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro

Substance Designer

The GIMP

nDo

Filter Forge

3D

XSI

ZBrush

Lightwave

3ds Max

Maya

Blender

NVIDIA Melody

Cinema 4D

NormalMapper

xNormal

Other

NormalMap Online: A website for generating normal maps online.

SSBump Generator 5.3: Despite the name, it can also be used to generate bumpmaps, not just self-shadowing bump maps.

Substance B2M3: Previously known as BitMap2Material.

InsaneBump: Specifically made to be a free alternative to the now-superseded software "CrazyBump" (may trip antiviruses due to incompatibility)

Conversion

In VTFEdit

When converting your texture:

1. Choose your image format. Uncompressed formats like BGR888 are higher-quality than compressed formats like DXT1, but be wary of file size.
2. Check the "Normal map" box in the texture's flags list after the import is complete. It's about 1/5 of the way down the list.

Tip:VTFEdit can automatically generate bump maps. See the bottom-right of the import screen.

In Vtex

1. Save your normal map as a TGA. Give it a name that ends in _normal. The _normal at the end of the name will affect how Vtex converts it. For the brick wall example, we would name the file brickwall_normal.tga.
2. Add nocompress 1 and normal 1 to <texture filename>.txt in the same folder as your texture, then compile.

Implementation

See $bumpmap.

See also

• $ssbump: creation and usage of Valve's new self-shadowing bump maps.
• An old article that explains normal mapping quite well
• Polycount wiki page about normal maps
• Creating a Material