System Information
Win10, Nvidia 970
Blender Version
Broken: 2.79b (I haven't tested on previous versions, but this has been an issue I've run into for a while.)
Summary:
When using a normal map from some DDS files, Blender can display the image fine in UV/Image Editor, but when plugged into a normal map node, the normals don’t show. If you take that DDS file and open/resave in GIMP, the normals do show. If you take that DDS file and pack it into the project, the normals also work properly.
Steps to reproduce:
- Extract the linked Blend file, which contains a simple cube and node layout.
- Set the view port to rendered mode.
- Attach the brick_a_ddn-gimp.ddsImage Texture node to the Separate RGB node (DDS mixes up R and G for normals). The rendered image should show some nice pretty normals.
- Attach the brick_a_ddn-orig.dds (ATI2 DDS File) Image Texture node to the Separate RGB node. The normals disappear, and you just see a flat surface on the cube.
- Pack the brick_a_ddn-orig.dds into the project (UV/Image editor, open the brick_a_ddn-orig.dds file, and go Image -> Pack Image).
- Refresh the viewport, and poof, you have normals again.
Also attached is a tif file converted from the orig DDS, which also works properly.
So while I have a workaround to get by this issue, it’s not ideal. I’m setting up a texture library, and don’t want to have to muddle with the original files to make them work properly. Nor do I want to pack all the images into the Blend file, since if I want to modify the textures in the future, it won’t apply to all the existing Blend files.