Tutorial Unreal Engine Bake DAZ Bump Maps to Normal Maps (for Game Engines)

[Hurensohn Heigl]

Bake DAZ Bump Maps to Normal Maps
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as of 08/07/2023​

This tutorial will cover the process of creating a normal map based off the bump map of Lifelike Nipple Graft and baking it onto the existing character body texture using the freeware Blender to save texture memory in Game Engines like UE 5. Here is a pdf version of the tutorial
View attachment Bump2Normal Tutorial.pdf


Rationale (aka Why should one do that?!)
Many Genesis 8 characters from the marketplace only provide the user with a bump map and no normal. Even though converter tools like the DAZ to UE or DAZ to Unity Bridge will generate a normal map, its quality is inferior to the ones provided with high fidelity character assets – which should always be the first choice. If your DAZ character doesn’t come with a tailored normal map, one could achieve a more realistic look in game engines like Unreal by baking a normal out of the (usually always present) bump map. It has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis whether the baked texture is superior to the auto-generated one from the DAZ Bridges.

Spoiler: I. Creating the Bump Material in Blender

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Spoiler: II. Baking the Normal Map

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Spoiler: III. (Optional) Baking the GeoShell Normal onto the Body one

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I sincerely hope that this tutorial could be of any help to anyone. Feedback, critique and comments are welcomed!