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Start Page » Game Development with the Drag[en]gine » Skin Texture Properties » Texture Property Database » normal.strength

Skin Texture Property: normal.strength

Defines the strength of the influence of the normal texture property.

Excepted Data Source1 component value
Data Range0 to 1. above or below for special effects
Default Value1
Affected ModulesGraphic, Physics
Linked Propertiesnormal

Description

The normal.strength texture property is linked to the normal texture property. It defines the strength of the normal map. This property blends the normal obtained from the normal map with the real geometry normal. This allows to use the full image resolution for normal map details where subtle normal map effects are desired without producing artifacts. This can be used for example for a window having a slight normal perturbance effect. Storing the normal map with such a subtle strength results in ugly artifacts due to the 8-bit resolution not being used. Using this texture property the normal map can be stored at full strength but the effect reduced to the desired level. Furthermore this can also be used to create dynamic normal map effects without the need for a dynamic normal map property. This texture property is also useful to share normal maps across different materials using different strength.

The value is typically a single component value with the data in the range from 0 to 1. 0 represents 0% influence of the normal texture property. 1 represents 100% influence of the normal texture property. Higher values can be used to excagerate the strength. The results can though be volatile if going to high. Negative values can be used to invert the effect of the normal map. How well this all works depends on the used normal map.

The default value for this texture property is 1.

Examples

Reflection in a window with different strength of a distorting normal map

Reflection in a window with different strength of a distorting normal map. The same normal map is used to render the glass uneven. On the right is a normal.strength of 1, in the middle of 0.25 and on the left of 0.02 . Using a low normal.strength value the full resolution of the normal map can be used without running into artifacts.