Aleksandr Kirichenko

Hi Stinzen, you can either download the Houdini digital assets from the archive or from Orbolt (if you need a full commercial license instead of an Indie license) and place them in the "Houdini preferences folder/otls". After restarting, they'll appear in the material context inside Karma Material Builder under MaterialX -> Normals -> Mtlx Normals Intensity. From there, you can use them like any other MaterialX nodes. These nodes are designed for tangent‑space normals, so they should be applied before the Mtlx Normal Map node. I’m also attaching a sample project, which you can open to verify that the HDAs are installed correctly.

While working with MetaHumans in Solaris, I realized I needed a node to blend normal maps with micro-normal details. So I created a few simple nodes to handle normal maps in MaterialX.

Mtlx Combine Normals
https://www.orbolt.com/asset/FaitelsTech::mtlx_combine_normals::1.0
Combines two normal maps into one using a whiteout-style blend algorithm.



MtlX Flip Normals
https://www.orbolt.com/asset/FaitelsTech::mtlx_flip_normals::1.0
Converts normal maps between DirectX and OpenGL conventions by flipping the green (Y) channel.



MtlX Normals Intensity
https://www.orbolt.com/asset/FaitelsTech::mtlx_normals_intensity::1.0
Adjusts the strength of a normal map by scaling the X/Y components.



MtlX Rotate Normals
https://www.orbolt.com/asset/FaitelsTech::mtlx_rotate_normals::1.0
Performs an axis-angle rotation of the sampled normal vectors (not the texture pattern).
Rotates a normal map's vectors around the tangent Z axis.



The attached zip file contains Indie HDAs; a full commercial license will be available after review on Orbolt.

Great idea! One potential consideration is the ability to bake modifiers on geometry and shaders into textures. For example, cars often have subd modifiers, and plants have adjustable leaf shaders; therefore, all of this has to be baked beforehand.