When comparing Awesome Bump vs ShaderMap 4, the Slant community recommends Awesome Bump for most people. In the question“What are the best programs for making height maps, normal maps, and/or other maps?” Awesome Bump is ranked 1st while ShaderMap 4 is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Awesome Bump is:
Supports great features, such as the addition of grunge maps, supports tessellation, and has a beautiful 3d view port.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Feature complete
Supports great features, such as the addition of grunge maps, supports tessellation, and has a beautiful 3d view port.
Pro Free and open-source
Being open source, along with the price of nothing makes this software very compelling to use.
Pro Cross platform
This software is cross platform, so you can integrate it into your work flow without worrying to much about your operating system (Linux, Mac, and Windows).
Pro Node-driven map generation
Shadermap specializes in generating multiple maps using nodes. Changes to one node can then be propagated to other nodes.
Pro Bake texture maps from 3d models
This program can bake texture maps from 3d models from a high poly to low poly. Not many similar software has this feature.
Cons
Con Confusing
The first few times using the software, you may have a hard time getting what you want. That is mostly due to the slew of features, and slightly confusing interface.
Con Doesn't run on MacOS
Con Requires open GL 3.30 or higher
Although the pbr view port looks great, it does come with the drawback that you will have to have support for open GL 3.30 or higher, and set it up before hand (if its not already set up on your computer).
Con Expensive compared to similar software
While the software is great at what it does, it comes at a higher cost than most software that does similar things when it comes to generating normal maps.