Arnold - Normal Map Direction

[Anonymous]

What is the default directions that arnold expects in order to work correctly? I am used to GREEN down and RED going right-to-left. 

Arnold comes with two check boxes checked. What is it expecting to FLIP on input?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anyone got an idea? This forum is dropping the ball, hard. Common people! Help me out!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

The green and red channels are what will be flipped and they just change how the normals will be displayed. You should be able to see the effects as they are changed in real time.

If you want more information, solid angle has great documentation that can be found here!

Let me know if you need anything else!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[Anonymous]

Hey there, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it doesn't answer my question. I asked what is the expected normal direction for Maya? Is it green up or down? Red, left or right?

I've looked in the documentation, it's not in there.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Just test it on your own, should not take more than some minutes.

[Anonymous]

Not sure just testing it yourself answers anything. Without knowing the correct direction, you will get different results every render. All your doing is trying to match the lighting to fit your desired direction. Instead of having the normal map be correct and all you then need to worry about is your lighting.
I cant find anything online and find it ridiculous there is no documentation to just simply state which direction the green channel needs to be flipped. Every other software at least has this. 
So i guess for now ill just take a shot in the dark and play with the setting for the next 2 hours. 

[Anonymous]

Hey! I did a bunch of tests a while ago. There are a few different combinations of settings you can choose depending on your file r/g directions, etc.. but if you want consistent results just do this. Uncheck everything in the Arnold node and have in your normal map G light from above and R from right to left. Good to go. Hope this saves you the time I wasted on it.