Hi. I have a 27,000-poly Epcot sphere model and to improve performance, I would like to have the hi-poly model attached to a 768-poly model; thus, improves performance.

Will the normal mapping technique work on that situation?

I have an ATI Xpress 200 series chipset with graphics capability, which supports PS/VS 2.0.

I'm hoping to get the SMEE2 Pro when it comes out. It seems, though, that I won't be able to do normal mapping technique with FFP. However, my model that I have in my hard drive, won't be used in a game, but I would add in the model if I'm going to be developing future games, on which in the future, most (if not all) gamers will have their PCs equipped with a video card that supports VS/PS 1.1 or better.

sure normal mapping will work here. you could do it in fixed func too, but then you would need a fixed light source, like the sun.

OK. Since I don't have SMEE2 Pro yet, how do I get the hi-poly model into a low-poly model using a normal mapping technique?

This is the one that I intend to use (note that I put too much specular effect to the left where light source orginates in MED):

You can use "Melody" from Nvidia to reduce polygon count and to calculate the normalmap from the high poly version.

OK. I've got Melody, now here's my question. To keep the same look as a reference (hi-poly) model, how do I get the low-poly model (1900 poly sphere) to look the same as the reference model?

I started Melody, added in the working (low-poly) model and a reference (hi-poly) model, clicked in Align Model to move the reference model to align with working model, and I clicked in Generate Normal Maps without any settings changed.

And here's the result:



While I don't understand the concepts of normal mapping, how do I get it so looks the same as the hi-poly model?

the consept is realy simple, you will only need to understand what is normal of the surface.
if you see the normals of your hi-poly ball and the low-poly you will see a BIG diference.
the normal map is the image of the hi-poly normals, so when you apply it to a low-poly model the shader simulate the image normals in the low-poly object.

Melody doesnt work.

same for me. Melody cannot export models. It crashes every time.

What tool should we use instead?

I can create normalmaps with Lightwave but they are object space normalmaps. I think we need tangent space normal maps.

I am moving into a dead end.

Frank

cant you use something like hypernurbs (thats how its called in cinema)? but use the lowpoly uv-map and then bake the texture??

well, for me, melody works fine.
but if it doesn´t for you, 3dsMAX has several tools to reduce the polys and export normal maps (free plugin).

if you don´t have MAX... well, i do not have as much money to buy every high-end modeller in the world to search for solutions. strange why melody crashes for you...