nDo 2 (Photoshop Normal Map creation plugin)

Here it is, and I think it's simply amazing -

What do u think guys?

 

Yah, was using the beta, bought it as soon as they finally released it for purchase, you can do some really slick stuff with this.

 

Yup, purchased this as well, definitely worth the price. Was using the first nDo and it was already pretty cool then.

 

Is there a big difference between it and the NVid plugin that does normal mapping for PS?

 

Is that a serious question?
NVidia Tools is outdatet for a long time.
Alone the realtime preview of nDo is a big difference, just watch the video and keep in mind that NV Tools only generate a NormalMap out of a heightmap.

I still work with the xNormal PlugIn but will definitely give the 2nd version of nDo a try.

 

Yes its a serious question , i do all my normal mapping in max, because unfortunately the NVid plugin wasnt that good, and secondly , i think the 3d software does a better job in most cases.

That said , thank you , good to know. I will prolly check this out.

 

Baking stuff in 3d is a good option in a lot of cases. However, when your doing certain types of texturing, you can't always get detail baked in, or if your adding detail that shouldn't be present other than on the texture, you don't want to model all sort of proxy geometry just for that. nDo pretty much gives you a perfect reprisentation of your texture into a normal map, you can edit it in many ways to get a great result, and even mix it between maps to get perfect results. It also lets you bake/edit AO, height maps, as well. You can also use photoshops tools to interactively create a normal map, which is awsome for adding in fine detail - and it will generate a diffuse map you can use then as a base to work with to produce a texture from. All this saves hundreds of hours of work.

 

Good stuff Larv , you guys definately got me interested in that. Thanks

 

it doesnt work on macosx. is there any mac alternative of this product?

 

Looks like a great product, unfortunately not Mac Friendly...

For mac users, there is CrazyBump for mac which I think is still in beta.
http://crazybump.com/mac/

 

Crazybump went crazy expensive once it went out of beta on the PC. Shame really because for something in the $50 range it would have been good but $100 for non commercial and $300 for commercial use is way too much.

Another alternative is Pixel Plant 2 for mac, pc and photoshop. Odly it uses the ogre3d engine which I was using at the time I first used it.

http://www.pixplant.com/


Going to check out nDo 2

 

CrazyBump for mac is ok... I always preferred NVidia's Photoshop plugin which unfortunately only comes for PC. I haven't seen PixelPlant... will have a look.

 

nDo2 will likely have a mac port, they mentioned it during the beta process, but said they planned to focus first on getting the pc versions done and out, before worrying about ports. Would be worth mentioning to them you want a mac version, see if anything has been done, and see about getting in their beta to improve the testing process. I know for the pc beta, they had absolutely no restrictions other than not using it for comercial works - so no watermarks or stuff like that, and it really has been a joy to work with, taking my textures to another level.

 

Teddy, the Developer in charge of nDo2 (or at least it says so in the forums) replies to one worried mac user:

So... lets see what happens. But overall, I think there is a strong, ever-growing 3D Artist-on-a-Mac community which need this sort of tools to work in this OS. I hope they do get those resources

 

I was just going to post about this after seing the homepage. Seems like some people behind STARBREEZE, the company who made chronicles of riddick and The darkness

 

Hmm... Might want to see if this is better than the nVidia Plugin package. Seems like it should be worth looking at a trial of at least. Although the video shows the tutorial being used with that *other* game engine that starts with the letter U. Hmm...

 

I'd be careful WedgeBob, not only is it better, but its known to come with some addicting mood altering properties, which may include a lot of time lost as your mouth hangs open as the amazing results.

 

Come to think of it...besides Photoshop, I also have Zbrush 4 as well, which admittedly, one of the big secondary features, of course, is...normal mapping. So it would certainly be worth wondering just how well this nDo 2 would do up against Zbrush when it comes to this. Now in Zbrush, you actually sculpt into an alpha stencil to create a normal map, iirc... Seems like the slider bit within Photoshop sounds good with this tool, but... Not sure how the results would differ between the two.

 

This tool is very good, it is a little expensive on low end machines, i dont know why but somehow preview is eating performance quite a bit.
It is better than Pixelplant 2, Nvidia PS filter, or CrazyBump its just little more complex.

 

I found that the preview tends to slow me down, and my machine is very high end. What I usually do is run the settings and check it out in 2d turning off their preview box, and when I get settings that I am happy with, I turn on the 3d preview to confirm those look good for me in 3d as well.

 

Yeah, that's what I mean... To me, it seems like Zbrush is really the industry standard when it comes to normal mapping, and quite frankly, it doesn't bog down system performance at all, either, unlike nDo 2's trial that I've been playing around with for the last few hours. Needless to say, while I did like nDo 2 when I was using it, I have to give the nod to Zbrush's normal map feature instead, hate to say it...

 

Wedgebob, Zbrush is not the industry standard when it comes to Normal Mapping, it is the industry standard for sculpting - it offers a lot of other good options as well. What NDo2 does, and does well, is convert your existing textures into normal maps. It also lets you edit your normal maps in photoshop, using all of photoshops tools, which is really powerful. In Zbrush your baking normals, or drawing on them in 3d, which can be excellent.

I know that its nice to have another tool in my tool box, I was able to complete a lot of texture converts to really solid normals with this, without having to rely on doing a lot of high poly work first, which was really amazing to me.

 

I know that Zbrush is a sculpting tool already...just defending it so I don't have to cough up another wasteful $300 over the $700 that ZBrush already costs.

Yeah, all right, I apologize for knocking this tool, but I just feel that there are alternatives like xNormal that have almost the same power in spots that if one already has big tools that can't put others in their budget, that using SSBump or xNormal would indeed become more of a reasonable alternative. I'm one of those who uses industry standard/proprietary tools in some categories, and in others uses cheaper/free/open-source alternatives...kind of a mix and match deal. However, I feel what you're saying. Sorry about bashing this thread, or this tool, if that's what you think I was doing.

 

Freelancer license is $99 for nDo 2. Figure out what you make per hour and how much time nDo 2 will save you. I think it's a very reasonable price.

 

All right, my friend... Thought that I'd get away with xNormal 3.17.8, but if you are right about this, then so be it. Seems like the guys over at 3D Buzz seem to have liked xNormal for the longest time, but maybe nDo 2 might change their minds... Time'll tell.

All right, got the freelancer one, then... Hopefully this'll become better in the long run. Thought xNormal would've been good, but this might be better with Blender-based objects than xNormal, perhaps, we'll see...

 

XNormal is great, I use it regularly. nDo 2 is similar but different. I personally sculpt more than I use processed maps so XNormal is exactly what I need.

 

Good to know. I actually have a few textures that I ripped from WorldCraft 1.6 back in the day from Quake (don't tell Carmack), and I'd like to see what 15 year old textures would look like in 2011 when used with this. I'm pretty sure that if I were to create a goth environment like you have back then, wonder if I'd even recognize that it was from a 1996 level redesigned in Unity.

EDIT: Ooh, I tried a couple of those texture samples, and I have to say... I'm sorry I doubted picking this up right when this was announced, and making all these complaining posts. Seems like I should have used this before any other normal mapping package. This might be a good tool for those involved with the Tenebrae port project for Quake.

 

Take a look at ShaderMap 2. It is cheap and does the job.

 

Naw, I got nDo2 now, and it's as cool as they show in the videos. All in all, it could give CrazyBump a run for its money. Although I kind of wish that nDo2 was more friendly to UV maps, tho, since nDo2 likes to normal map the whole thing, including the areas outside the island seams, which I don't really like...but most 3D apps won't count the mapping outside of the seams, tho, so no harm, no foul...just eats up more image space, tho.

 

For the guys looking for an alternative to Crazybump for Mac, you got Bitmap2Material on the asset store, which does the same job, is cheaper and gives you a choice of using it as a standalone, as a plugin to 3dsMax or Maya or even directly inside the Unity editor if you wish

 

Do we need the extended license of Photoshop CS4 to get the 3D thing working?

Or does the generic license is also working fine with this plugin?

 

With CS4, you need the extended version for 3D.

 

It works with the regular version of photoshop, the 3d features are extended as part of this plugin.