Laigter – generate lighting maps for 2D game artwork

Laigter is a graphical texture utility for turning 2D artwork into maps used by dynamic lighting systems in games.

It analyses a diffuse image and can derive normal, parallax, specular and occlusion maps without requiring the artist to model the sprite in 3D. Adjustable generation settings and a live preview help balance depth and highlights before the maps are exported. Although particularly suited to sprites and other hand-drawn game assets, its preset system and command-line mode also make it practical for repeatable batches. The application is built with Qt and OpenGL and provides a native GUI alongside non-interactive operation.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Generates normal maps automatically from the luminance and detail of a source texture.
• Produces parallax, specular and ambient-occlusion maps from the same 2D artwork.
• Previews the combined result under movable lights before files are exported.
• Adds multiple lights to test how a sprite responds from different directions.
• Adjusts the strength and behaviour of each generated map independently.
• Saves generation settings as presets for consistent processing across related assets.
• Loads sprites and provides dedicated controls for their map-generation properties.
• Includes animation controls for checking illuminated sprite sequences in motion.
• Exports generated maps and can save an image of the current preview.
• Runs without the GUI for scripted processing of diffuse textures.
• Selects required outputs and a saved preset through command-line options.
• Installs, removes and reloads plugins from within the application.
• Provides English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Danish and Greek translations.

Website: github.com/azagaya/laigter
Support:
Developer: Pablo Ivan Fonovich
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

Laigter is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category. This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form.