3DS Max 2013 baking issue

Digipyro

I'm trying to bake some normals / A.O in Max but for some unknown reason i end up with these strange black shapes on my low poly model. As can be seen this isn't visible on the "complete"map or normal map nor the model itself Is there anyone that understands what's going on and can tell me how to prevent and/or fix this ?

P.S i know there's some mis checks on some places but they are easy to fix.

Things i've tried so far:
- Check for overlapping UV's
- Turn cast shadow of the low poly model off

|MM|

Are you using a cage?
The rays may hit parts of the mesh that are far away from the initial surface.

Digipyro

Thanks for your reply. I had a look and the high poly mesh is actually really close I've made a screenshot so you can see the cage and high poly/low poly mesh this might show the problem to you or someone else ( and hopefully be able and explain it to me )

Hang10

-Make sure there's no hidden geometry
-I'd suggest resetting xForms on the low poly
-check Smoothing groups on the low poly
-When using the cage have it on shaded mode and make the High poly a crazy color like purple or lime green to make it easier to see if there are any secretly overlapping parts.

If those fail, umm

-Maybe try exporting the low and/or high poly out as obj and starting in a new scene.

That's what I got for now. If you don't want to be troubled with any of the above I suggest trying xNormals.

Digipyro

Thanks for the help ! i managed to fix it by exporting both objects ( high / low poly) to a new scene, can't believe i didn't think of this earlier .

Hang10

No problem, glad to help