This chapter focuses on normal mapping—specifically on creating normal maps in Photoshop, with a look at creating them using a 3D program, and creating the supporting maps for a typical environment. I will explain how 3D applications are used to do this, but we won’t be doing this in this book.
In order to understand what a normal map is, first we will look at what a normal is and how lighting in games generally works. In short, a normal map creates an illusion of depth by recalculating the highlights and shadows on a low-polygon surface using the information from a high-polygon ...
Get 3D Game Textures, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
