Re: [Gimp-user] Questions about normal maps and GIMP

[Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 7:27 PM, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
> 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?

Hi Noel,

First things first. Providing tools to create normal maps is well
within GIMP's product vision [1], so I'd say should someone volunteer
to a) add this feature to GIMP, and b) maintain it., this might even
make it to 2.10.

It all boils down to getting involved someone who's interested in this
feature and has the time. The core team is currently busy with other
work.

Assuming that with "Normal Map 1-2-3" you are referring to NormalMap
v1.2.3 [2],I don't think I ever heard of other plugins like these two.
And I'm not in a position to say which one's better.

As for stable release updates, another one is not too far off. Right
now Mitch is having time of his life getting color management into a
much better shape for the development version :) So please be patient

[1] http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/GIMP_UI_Redesign#product_vision
[2] https://code.google.com/p/gimp-normalmap/downloads/list

Alex