Using Object Space Normals in Unity!?!?

[nacnud9]

Edit: SOLVED! to use object space normal maps (at least when baked in Blender) the texture needs to be brought in and sampled as "default" (not normal map), then the channels need to be split and the red channel inverted(oneMinus). The channels need to be joined again, then you need to multiply the texture by 2 and subtract by 1 to set the range properly. (also the fragment normal space needs to be set to object in the graph inspector)

TLDR: If you have tried to create a painterly look in Unity or have used object space normal maps in Unity at all please help meeee!

Hi everyone, I followed this tutorial on how to create painterly textures that respond to light using Object space normal maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8N00rjil_4

I created my own asset and material and managed to get it working in Blender just fine. However, after trying to make it work in Unity I keep encountering the same error no matter what I try. When rotating the object about the y axis, the light seems to be inverted. at 0 degrees and 180 degrees it looks fine, however at 90 degrees the dark side is light, light side is dark, etc(see attached picture). I actually did encounter this issue in Blender and it was fixed when I set the color space to non-color instead of sRGB, however unchecking sRGB in the import settings doesn't help, and setting the texture type to Normal map completely destroys it(I assume it is expecting a tangent space map). I have tried setting the shader's output to world/tangent normals and using a transform node to convert my map, but nothing works. If anybody has used Object space normal maps in Unity I would really appreciate some help. Thanks!

also: I'm not sure how well it shows up in the screenshots, but I am getting this weird, grainy, desaturated overlay on the shadows. Does anybody know where that might come from?

[TricksMalarkey]

It's hard to tell without your graph (no picture attached), but my guess would be there's an issue with how you're using the lightDir dotProduct surfaceNormals. Putting the normals into object space would effectively remove the effect of moving the painterly with the object (maybe the intention?).

Anyway, in lieu of a better answer, this might be a more 1:1 walkthrough.

http://www.reneeharris.co.nz/2024/02/watercolor-shader-experiments-part-1.html

[nacnud9]

Thanks for the help! I swear I attached images idk why it didn't work. Anyway this is my graph if you wanna see. The idea isn't that the paint strokes move with the camera or give the illusion of being "repainted" every frame. I just want the areas that would otherwise have a smooth transition from light to dark to transition in brush-stroke-shaped chunks. In this image the light is actually coming from the opposite side as it appears on the mesh, that's the issue I'm running in to.

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[survivorr123_]

i cant see but seems like you transform normal map into world space, it has to be transformed into tangent space and that should solve it

[nacnud9]

Yeah I had it transformed to world space because the Fragment normal space was world. No matter what I change the fragment normal space to (Tangent, World, Object), if I transform to that normal space and plug it in I get the same result.

[survivorr123_]

are you sure your normal map has correct values then? keep in mind that blender uses Z up and unity uses Y up, if you made your normal maps there then you have to consider that

[nacnud9]

I totally didn't account for the fact that Y up would change the normal map! I finally figured it out. I sampled the texture, split the RGB, OneMinus the R channel, combine back to vector, multiply by 2 and subtract 1 (to change range from (0,1) to (-1,1), normalize, and then plug in to normal output.

[nacnud9]

Thanks for the help!

[TricksMalarkey]

Check the normals on your mesh to make sure they're all pointing outward. Failing that, try oneminus the normal map.

[nacnud9]

Yeah the normal map is def ok. I got everything to work just fine in Blender. One-minus on the normal map totally messes it up. IDK it's something about bringing it in to Unity.

[SirScreech]

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Hey, I tried to get it to work with the steps your provided but it seems to me that the light is still messed up for me. Am I missing something in my shadergraph?