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Hi guys,

I'm currently playing arround with parallaxshaders. I've got them to work, but my problem is, that I dont't have a clue, how I can create a good heightmap, 'cause if I just grey out the texture, I have to many details and it looks very bad.
So does anybody know a good tutorial on how to create a good heightmap or has an idea?

Thanks in advance

P.S: I've attached a image of a texture and heightmap, which looks like I want it (It's taken from the parallaxshader demo by Evolved)

What I do to make a height map in photoshop is;

1. Make a duplicate of all your layers and make them as one,
2. Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate,
3. Duplicate the layer,
4. Go to Filters>Blur>Gausian Blur,
5. Mess around with the slider untill you get one fammiliar to the one you have in your attatchment,
6. Now go to Layer>Adjustments>Exposure,
7. Now mess around untill you get some good black & white blocks or whatever you want to be resembeled.

Or, you can paint over a black fill and paint with a soft white brush, this is hand painting a Height Map and can be quite good, other than that, try the first way for starters.

Hi Matuka,

Thanks for the answer, it really helped me.
But I've got one more question: Should I create the normalmap out of the heightmap or the texture?

Technically if you want a proper normal map it should be created from a hi-definition version of the original model with all of the details sculpted in, but thats getting into ZBrush and other expensive sculpting software.

If you're going with making a normal map from a texture, it depends on what details you want to have enhanced shading on. Using your example with the bricks, if you used the original texture and put it through NVidia's Normal Map filter in Photoshop, you'd get a normal map with data for small little surface details on the bricks. If you used the height map you provided, you'd get barely any detail on the surface of the bricks, but a deeper shadow between the bricks. Combining the two will get the best result.

Generally people use the original textures for Normal Map filters. Although if you're going this route I still recommend modifying the original texture to get a better result. The NVidia filter relies mainly on the level of a given pixel. The brighter it is the higher it shows up on the normal map. So knowing this, if you modify a copy of your original texture with the dodge and burn tools or some other method, you can gain some control on what parts of the texture will be higher than others in the normal map.

Ive attached an example of what the NVidia Filter would do to the brick texture you provided. The left image has too much surface detail, too much noise, and the right image doesnt have much. Combining the two will get a better result.

Thank you for the answer.

I've made a normal map with normal map plugin for gimp and it works fine for me (I get the same results as Evolved does).

Thank you all for helping me

I have also combined normal maps before, because as RUCCUS stated, details are most often lost. Just make a few different normal maps, one for big, medium and small details, and then look for something on the web that talks about normal map blending. It helps a lot. I will post how if your still confused.