Normal map doesn't contribute to baked lighting

Development Rendering
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1

Baking lighting with “Use normal map for static lighting” option turned on and off produces almost identical results - normal map doesn’t contribute to baked lighting and yields improper shading (as if it was a low poly mesh lightmapped, no details normal map should provide are visible).

This is original thread where it all started (with comparison pics): Lightmaps vs dynamic lighting over mesh terrain issues :/ - Rendering - Unreal Engine Forums

Thanks for looking into this - it’s a critical issue for me (and probably many who use baked lighting).

2

I have the same issue(

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Anyone? I am also have troubles with this

4

In 4.12 it seems normal maps work just fine with static lighting

5

This option in the editor is not for just any normal maps in the game. It’s for specifically built types where lightmass would need to know how to address.

As a test case, if you have a cube with all faces using a single smoothing group, but then render out a normal map to achieve sharp faces. Lightmass will need to be told about the normal map to reconstruct that as a cube with sharp faces. This is where this option comes into play.

6

Is this resolved? I use Version: 4.13.1-3142249+++UE4+Release-4.13 and have problems with baked lighting on static meshes with one smooth group and baked normal map. When I change them to movable the shading is perfect.

Cheers.