Now what is a normal maps? Simple put a normal map is similar to a bump map but goes beyond using only 8 bit color(black to white) to give depth, but instead it uses full RGB to give each pixel on the surface of a polygon a direction to point in without adding more geometry. We have 3 types of maps now at our disposal, a color, normal and specular maps, all of which if combined right give a greater effect of realism to our airplanes. This means, one image map, separate from the color maps we are all familiar with, uses the Red,green, and blue(RGB values from the image to make up the normal map and the alpha channel(transparency) for the specular maps. X-Plane uses combined normal and specular level maps in a single texture. For some these two things may seem very unfamiliar and I hope to help everyone reading this better understand what these are and how to use them. Normal maps and Specular maps have recently been added to our set of tools we can use as of X-plane version 9.41. It is very important that we all know the tools at our disposal and how to use them properly to better our products. It has come to my attention a thread just as this is much needed for our community of developers.
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