Normal Maps

why are my normal maps only showing up with pixel lights?

is there some setting i am missing? i tried everything i could think of - quality settings, import settings etc.

i'm using a normal map i generated with blender (not unity's auto generator). with a pixel light it shows up exactly as expected, with a vertex light only the base texture shows.

 

Normal maps require per-pixel lighting.

 

ahhh...
welcome to my noobness.
it makes me wonder though, what the heck are they doing in some of the AAA titles out there, which look like wall-to-wall bump spec maps. i guess maybe that's why they need top of the line hardware to look good.

 

Exactly - In Unity we do the same as most modern engines: By changing the PixelLightCount, you can modify how good the game should be. Once you have a bunch of lights, this is a very useful way to tweak performance.