Normal Maps and Subdivision Levels

Character Creator 5 not only supports 8K resolution textures, but also places special emphasis on Normal maps, which have a unique usage. Unlike other textures, Normal maps can be shared or swapped according to different Subdivision levels.

• Each Subdivision Level has its own Normal Map.

  All subdivision levels possesses individual normal maps

  Inspect Normal channel change in different subdivision levels

• All subdivision levels share one Normal Maps by Linking:

  Sharing one normal map (Source from SubD 2)

  Normal channel unchanged after you switch to different subdivision level

The advantage of this approach is that the details from high Subdivision models can be baked into a Normal map and then applied to lower Subdivision models. This saves memory that would otherwise be occupied by high-detail meshes, while still allowing low Subdivision models, paired with baked Normal maps, to display detailed surface appearances. In other words, real surface displacement is replaced by the illusion of bump and depth through texture-based lighting.