Bump and displacement map

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    • Official Post

    I can confirm there's something off with the combined normal-displacement loading at the moment - we'll investigate that. Thank you guys for your feedback!

  • Glad it works for you!

    Should also work with other formats that support an explicit alpha channel (like png or tga).

    Figured it out.

    Perhaps a photoshop quirk? - I had to apply the displacement map as a layer mask to the RGB normal image - then save as a PNG


    Adding in an alpha channel did not function as it did for the TIF.


    Works great! Thanks


    I'd love to see the displacement and normal intensity settings decoupled in future :)

  • Thought I would report back that setting it to displacement give incorrect result whereby the normal is interpreted as displacement, but setting it to normal gives correct result, the normal is reading as normal bump showing up in the micro details and the parralax displacement adds another level of bump in the macro details.

  • Thought I would report back that setting it to displacement give incorrect result whereby the normal is interpreted as displacement, but setting it to normal gives correct result, the normal is reading as normal bump showing up in the micro details and the parralax displacement adds another level of bump in the macro details.

    Let's compare textures

  • I don't have relief either with my displacement map (for very rough concrete). It's a PBR texture from ShareTextures. Just the shadow, but flat, with no relief.

  • I don't have relief either with my displacement map (for very rough concrete). It's a PBR texture from ShareTextures. Just the shadow, but flat, with no relief.

    Please share a photo.
    The thing to remember is that with Enscape you won't see a tessellated displacement. Enscape uses a parallax displacement method that is more optimized for real-time engines. So upclose the texture will appear flat.

  • I don't have relief either with my displacement map (for very rough concrete). It's a PBR texture from ShareTextures. Just the shadow, but flat, with no relief.

    Here is a quick guide as to how to get it to work - I'll use a sharetextures example : Brick Wall 5 in 1K (a sensible choice for real time)

    Also worth noting that Sharetextures seem to use 8bit Jpeg files - ideally we would like 16bit PNG files for this.




    I'm going to extract these into a folder and open the Normal Map and the displacement map in Photoshop

    When the normal map is open I'm going to open the channels and press the plus button



    This will create an alpha channel


    now go to the tab with the displacement map in and press ctrl-a (select all) and ctrl-c (copy) to copy this displacement map



    Go back to the normal map tab and paste the displacement map into the black alpha channel


    If you click the eyeball next to RGB in the bottom right , it will show all channels combined - in this example it looks a little more red than it did.


    Save the file as a tiff.


    Load this into Enscape's height slot and choose "displacement"

    This will load both the displacement AND the normal information in

    Notice that Enscape shows the alpha map we loaded in as the black details





    This will give you a nice result than using just normal/displacement, but as is always the case with Parralax occlusion maps (which is what the displaceme is) this does not change the silhouette of the object

  • Very interesting, Adam. I have never made use of normal maps before ? but I like the way you have so clearly described how to do this. I will try it!

    Normal maps were the newer version of a bump map, so those are the ones that you should use most often - only when you need a deeper relief might you need to also use a displacement map

  • Please share a photo.
    The thing to remember is that with Enscape you won't see a tessellated displacement. Enscape uses a parallax displacement method that is more optimized for real-time engines. So upclose the texture will appear flat.

    I see how this kind of displacement method would work better for real time engines. I do see if I rough up the geometry/profile at the ends or corners of the objects it helps with the look of relief.


    I'm generally really happy with the ease and look of Enscape; just discovering a few things different than other programs. But the integration/interaction between the two programs, Enscape and Sketchup, is amazing; much more fluid than I remember with other SketchUp plug-ins like Vray or Maxwell or even Corona Render (which I used with Cinema4D). I love that.

  • I just made simple maps so I could see clearly if that works..

    I think it is obvious it works.. I did it in gimp.. added layer mask (alfa) to Normal map.. saved in PNG

    Sorry but on the bricks was a bit hard for me to notice if it actually does the work..