Normal mapped low poly rendering

[mucsiattila]

Hi!
Maybe this is a stupid question, but I realy need some advice.
I have read a lot about real time low poly and normal maps and shaders and etc
But the thing I want to do is not real time. I want to make perfect beauty shots of my low poly normal mapped models with 3DS Max.
I usualy use 3 spotlights (2 of them with raytrace shadows, 1 with shadows tuned off) and standard material with diffuse, specular and normal bump.
I use default sclanline render with light tracer with 2.5 max star supersamling on.
Is there any other way to get better results in MAX, or I just have to render in an other prog?

Thx in advance.

[rocneasta]

have you tried using mental ray as engine for rendering - it comes with 3ds max and also as standalone.

If you're using max 2011 you have quicksilver and in 2012 quicksilver and iray render engines.

I know you said you don't want real time but most artists if rendering low poly use marmoset or similar to see their results and render them out.

[mucsiattila]

yes I tried mental ray, but the result was almost the same with scanline.
I tried marmoset too, but nothing special came out.
maybe I use them wrong way, or my normal maps are not good enough, or I just expect too much from normal maps
I realy dont know

here u can find some of my low poly works:
http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=85358

and here is the quality that I want to reach:
http://posetopose.files.wordpress.co...2112-image.jpg

[Perversonality]

The "best" way to view a normal map is to get the lighting right and use a hardware viewport in Max or an external viewer as suggested above. If your lighting is bad then the normal map will look bad too. To test a normal map I normally set the Max viewport to render textures in hardware mode (you can do this via the material editor) and then have a single omni light which you move around to check the effect of the map. If it's all good then you can export the model and bring it into marmoset to add environment maps and so on to really make the model shine