Hi there, I have spent ages making textures for a level from photos and uvw wrapping them in max. Now I want to make normal maps, using the nvidea height map to normal converter (I have zbrush but feel the height map way is better),
now is the only way to do this is to add a layer over texture make it transparant and paint black and white depending on raised and lowered surfaces?

I guess this is, but any quicker way will be greatfully appreciatted,
thanks,
James.

Well, MED has some editing tools for heightmaps, but they aren't good for high-quality terrains.

sure sorry i dont mean height map for terrains, i mean heaight map ie bump grayscale map from the textures i created for my buildings i made....

I guess i will have to do it the long way or use zbrush to make the normal maps which will take long as well.

But You don't have to make grayscale map. Try to use tgatodot3 by ATI, works quite well with color textures to create dot3 for bump.

Ok I am not too convinced I beleived to make a proper normal map, u need height map or a hi res mesh,

I would like to try your theory though but I searched for the plugin and cant seem to find it, i have the Nvidea one though so guess thats the same....

it's a exe file...
I have a nvidia too and belive me it doesn't matter.
and from ordinary color map you can make a nice dot3.tga for bump.
Normal Map Generator

To make a normal map you certainly need to use a greyscale hieghtmap.. there is no other way (any program that skips this step just converts a color image into a greyscale map and turns that into a normal map; the results wont be so good usually).

I just use photoshop to make a heightmap, or I render a normal map from a mesh..

if you have the hi res mesh already you can make a normal map render in blender, if that is a route your willing to take