The best free normal map generator is the ATI normal mapper. If you want to pay a lot of money get the CryTech normal map maker.. it's supposedly good.

What about Nvidia's Photoshop normal map plugin... wouldn't that work?

Not for generating normal maps from high res poly models.

Matt_AufderHeide: How do you work with the ATI normal mapper? I tried it but it works only with one model format that I do not know. How can I read and write this file format?

DaBro0zar: The same for me. I don't want to spend 3500 or more to buy 3dsmax only for the normal maps.

William: Yes, that works fine when you create normalmaps out of greyscale bump maps but I would like to create these maps from high poly models.

there is a nice ati normal mapper script for blender (and i think blender can import lightwave models):

http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=39147&highlight=#39147

Ventilator: Thank you. That sounds interesting. The blender tool simply uses the ATI normal mapper that I mentioned above (with the strange .nmf - Format that I do not know). But it has the advantage of better import and export options through blender.

I did another search and found a nice tool called O.R.B. that seems to use the normal map generator from the doom3 team. That supports 3 file formats and native Lightwave files:
http://engineering.soclab.bth.se/tools/177.aspx

Frank