[Gimp-user] Questions about normal maps and GIMP

[Noel Stoutenburg <mjolnir ticnet com>]

Friends,

In the past I have had the occasional need to produce a "normal map" 
from an image, and had good success from the plug in "Normal Map 1-2-3". 
But I hadn't used it for a while, in fact since before I upgraded my OS 
(to Windows 8 64 bit). I have not been able to install this plug-in 
successfully into my GIMP installation, perhaps because I have the 
installation in a custom place.

One of the other options I've looked at is the "Insane Bump" plug in, 
but I haven't decided to try to install that one either, because of a 
characteristic it seems to share with Normalmap, namely that it has been 
a while (though not as long as with  Normal map) since the package has 
been updated. Combined with the age of the 2.8.14 release of GIMP, it 
seems prudent to ask some questions.

Is the capability to produce a normal map from within GIMP something 
that is apt to be added to the native codebase in the next major release 
(3.0)?

Is anyone aware of a better  normal map plug-in than the two listed 
above available now, or under development for release in the near future?

ns