How to make dark side of normal mapped object also look bumpy?

Hi guys,

I'm using normal mapping in my shaders to add detail to my textures.
They are working out great for the most part, but there is a huge contrast between sides that receive light and sides that don't. The sides that don't receive light look completely flat, which make complete sense.

I'm looking for tips and tricks to also give the dark side the illusion of the extra detail.
Perhaps I'm approaching the problem wrong. Does normal mapping typically also respond a little to ambient light somehow?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Assuming your using a directional light to simulate the sun, you could add a second directional light facing in the opposite direction to simulate light bounces. The second light source should be less bright then your main one. That way you should see more details on the darker sides of objects then you would using only ambient lighting. I don't think ambient lights will show any details from normal maps at all, since they don't have a direction.

 

If you switch your ambient lighting to use a cubemap or gradient and also add a cubemap to your reflection source, you should see some detail on the shadowed side of the building.