Replicating Cinema 4D's Omni Light behavior on a Normal map?

[JEEK]

Hey guys,

Objective

I'm on this ambitious quest to finding a way to have Octane's (unbiased) Area Light behave like Cinema 4D's (biased) Omni Light, regardless of what it may entail (i.e. any amount of trickery).

In this specific scenario, we have 2 important components:

• - A Normal map that was baked in Object space
  - A Light that interacts with the Normal map in a very particular way

Demonstration 1 (Omni Light in the Standard Renderer)

For example, in the GIF below, this is how Cinema 4D's Omni Light interacts with a Normal map that was baked in Object space:

(please open the image below to play the GIF)

Take note of how Cinema 4D's Omni Light "reveals" the rectangles on the Normal map.

Demonstration 2 (Area Light in Octane Renderer)

In comparison, this is how Octane's Area Light interacts with the same Normal map that was baked in Object space:

(please open the image below to play the GIF)

Take note of how Octane's Area Light fails to replicate the way Cinema 4D's Omni Light "reveals" the rectangles on the Normal map.

This is the Normal map in question:

The Normal map baked in Object space.

Observations

As you can observe in the GIFs above, the "rectangle" shapes on the Normal map are revealed by the scene's Light in very different ways. I understand that the root cause is most likely that the Omni Light is biased, while the Area Light is unbiased.

Given this, I ask you: with the help of any technique or form of trickery, in Octane, is there any way I could possibly replicate the way Cinema 4D's Omni Light interacts with my Normal map as seen in the first GIF above?

I attached a project file to this message that contains the setups for both the Omni Light (Standard renderer) and the Area Light (Octane renderer).

Any advice/suggestion is highly appreciated!

Thank you so very much in advance guys!

[JEEK]

Hey guys,

I’m throughly sorry if this comes off as entitled, but I was really hoping to know if there’s any way I could get a quick response to this? Even a "look into X" or "this isn’t possible" would be much, much better than nothing at all. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time experimenting with this and I just feel at a complete loss.

Thank you once again for any morsel of guidance. I’ll take whatever I can get. Thanks.

[frankmci]

I'd start buy using a much simpler example scene, such as a flat plane with raised hemispherical bumps in the surface normals channel, and compare the two light behaviors with that. This head geometry and texture introduce a lot of variables that make it less intuitive to understand what's really going on here.