Disabling normal optimization

[Michael Tetzlaff]

Rich House from Yale gave me permission to share this example in which we found that disabling normal map optimization might be desirable.

In this example, there was more ambient / background light, which caused reflections / shadows on the base of the model:

 

[Michael Tetzlaff]

These reflections / shadows seemed to appear / be baked into the normal map in ways that were undesirable:

[Michael Tetzlaff]

For "non-ideal" data like this it may be better to use Metashape's normal map and turn of Kintsugi's normal optimization:

If you ever find that the Kintsugi normal map is making things worse, the normal map optimization can be turned off under the "Advanced" settings when processing textures: