Demonstrated in the not too short video is how to make a picture perfect normal map by extracting a height map from 3ds Max, using render to texture, and then converting it to a normal map using xNormal that avoids the noise problems usually associated with projection mapping.
I plan on covering more on the render to texture feature on how to use the power of 3ds Max to make next gen AAA textures with out the need for 2d editing skills as well work flow techniques to map making that can be expanded to included others working on the same project.
I’m kind of scratching my head as to why you don’t just bake the meshes down to a simple, UV-unwrapped plane in Xnormal. It yields better results and is more correct than rendering a height map from a mesh, then trying to extract normals from that height map.
Well as part of my work flow for making a complete texture as to other necessary elements I found that planer mapping the material to a canvas,and then render to texture, the resolution of the texture creates a fast result if you also included all of the other maps you may need. Using the same geometry one just needs to change the material to get all of the other maps and having a height map may still be needed.
I also found this to be the best way, for me anyways, of making a normal/height map tile.
