• Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
  • Asset Store
  • Get Unity

UNITY ACCOUNT

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account
  • Blog
  • Forums
  • Answers
  • Evangelists
  • User Groups
  • Beta Program
  • Advisory Panel

Navigation

  • Home
  • Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
    • Blog
    • Forums
    • Answers
    • Evangelists
    • User Groups
    • Beta Program
    • Advisory Panel

Unity account

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account

Language

  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
    • Default
    • Help Room
    • META
    • Moderators
    • Topics
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Badges
  • Home /
avatar image
0
Question by David C · Oct 23, 2011 at 03:36 PM · renderinggraphicsnormalmap

Are normal maps expensive to render?

Hi,

I'm developing my first app and I am petrified of making the game to slow. Just so I know are normal maps expensive to render or are they a cheap method to increase the graphics quality?

thanks, David

Comment
Add comment
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users

1 Reply

· Add your reply
  • Sort: 
avatar image
2
Best Answer

Answer by Peter G · Oct 23, 2011 at 05:20 PM

Its cheaper to use a normal map that to actually model all the geometry that you would need.

Extra CG calculations normal maps add:

  1. Storing the normal texture. Not really a calculation, but memory is important to remember.

  2. An extra texture look up. Texture look ups are relatively fast so don't worry too much about this.

  3. Unpacking the normal. Its a simple calculation, but its done in a fragment shader so it happens A LOT.

  4. Multiplying the normal by the normal map. Vector/Matrix multiplication done many times.

On modern hardware, normal maps aren't that costly. They're usually preferred instead of having high vertex counts. I can't give you a number of normal maps you can have because there are far too many variables playing into a scene to give a good approximation. Generally though, you can give most important objects a normal map. That is main characters, other NPC's, and large objects in the surroundings.

It's a separate decision for every model though. You need to figure out if it has enough detail as it is. Small objects obviously don't need much and usually shouldn't get a normal map. Will the player notice it? That's an important question. Many times the player (especially in a fast paced game) won't notice half the things that you do when you are scrutinizing your level.

The verdict: don't be too worried about using normal maps, there not that expensive on standalones. But be reasonable.

Comment
Add comment · Show 1 · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image David C · Oct 23, 2011 at 06:58 PM 0
Share

By standalones do you mean PC and $$anonymous$$ac? Thanks for the advice, I noticed shadowgun uses them a lot so I have much more confidence to use them on iOS

Your answer

Hint: You can notify a user about this post by typing @username

Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 524.3 kB each and 1.0 MB total.

Welcome to Unity Answers

If you’re new to Unity Answers, please check our User Guide to help you navigate through our website and refer to our FAQ for more information.

Before posting, make sure to check out our Knowledge Base for commonly asked Unity questions.

Check our Moderator Guidelines if you’re a new moderator and want to work together in an effort to improve Unity Answers and support our users.

Follow this Question

Answers Answers and Comments

3 People are following this question.

avatar image avatar image avatar image

Related Questions

Sun-shaft camera glitch 0 Answers

Small line appearing under my 2D pixel sprite - 2D Graphics not rendering properly 2 Answers

Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced sometimes inside out? 0 Answers

Job-simulator-like liquids 0 Answers

Static GameObjects Losing Normal On Play 1 Answer


Enterprise
Social Q&A

Social
Subscribe on YouTube social-youtube Follow on LinkedIn social-linkedin Follow on Twitter social-twitter Follow on Facebook social-facebook Follow on Instagram social-instagram

Footer

  • Purchase
    • Products
    • Subscription
    • Asset Store
    • Unity Gear
    • Resellers
  • Education
    • Students
    • Educators
    • Certification
    • Learn
    • Center of Excellence
  • Download
    • Unity
    • Beta Program
  • Unity Labs
    • Labs
    • Publications
  • Resources
    • Learn platform
    • Community
    • Documentation
    • Unity QA
    • FAQ
    • Services Status
    • Connect
  • About Unity
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Affiliates
    • Security
Copyright © 2020 Unity Technologies
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Cookies Settings
"Unity", Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Anonymous
  • Sign in
  • Create
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
  • Default
  • Help Room
  • META
  • Moderators
  • Explore
  • Topics
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Badges