Generated normal map resolution

This should be a really quick question, because I’m sure I’m being dumb but I can’t find an answer anywhere. I rendered a landscape in World Machine with a resolution of 4033x4033, with the impression it would make it easier to import to UE4. I also generated a normal map for the entire landscape at the same resolution, in World Machine.

In UE4, I set up a texture sample node, and used the 4033x4033 normal map for my 4033x4033 terrain. However, I can’t tell if the normal map is aligned correctly with the terrain. For best results on terrain with a resolution of 4033x4033, should I use that same non-standard resolution for the normal map, or should I generate the normal map at the standard resolution of 4096x4096 instead?

If you’re using the landscape tools, search for the “LandscapeTextureCoordinates” node and plug that into the UV slot on the texture sample.

I’m not 100% sure if it requires tweaking so you might need to multiply it by the texture’s resolution.

Hey, thank you for answering. I should have mentioned before that I actually did have a texture coordinate node connected. I’ve attached an image of how it’s set up. Leaving the mapping scale at zero was definitely not right, so I tried a value of 4033 to match the texture resolution and the terrain mesh resolution, and it seemed to correct the problem at first. But since there were a few shadows where I was unable to tell if they were misaligned, I just figured I would ask if it would make any difference to switch to a 4096 normal map resolution.

I’ve tested both normal map resolutions of 4096x4096 and 4033x4033, but since it takes time for the landscape to reload the material, it’s hard to tell if it changes anything by just looking at it, so I was more of wondering if it’s supposed to make a difference.

Okay, so I actually switched to version 4.18 now to see if it’d make any difference. I recreated my material exactly, and regenerated my World Machine terrain mesh with a height of 2560m, in the hope it’d be more compatible with UE4’s 512m since they divide evenly.

I’ve attached an image of my terrain as it currently is. Does it look like the normal map is properly aligned, or does it look misaligned? The landscape coordinate node is the exact same as the image above. I’m finding it hard to tell if it looks aligned. Thanks for any help.

It looks okay but it’s hard to be sure. Turn on detail lighting and take a 3 screenshots using the high-res screenshot tool and upload them:

1: With normal map set at 4033
2: With normal map set at 4096
3: Normal map disabled

Okay, thank you. I got the images you requested, but turning on detail lighting was very helpful on its own, and showed me that it’s perfectly aligned regardless of whether the texture resolution is 4033 or 4096, as long as I have my mapping scale set to 4033 in my landscape coordinate node.

I’d upload the images anyway, but attachments that high-resolution seem to break Imgur for me and exceed the 5MB limit for attachments on this site. Thank you for your help, and for the tip about detail lighting; it allowed me to make sure that the texture was mapping correctly to the terrain. I’m going to consider this solved.

I thought that would be the case.

Glad I could help :slight_smile: