Someone save me (bake my model and show me how I suck).

pixelpatron

I've read so many tutorials my head hurts, this baking stuff is driving me mad! I can't seem to bake anything without errors galore! So this is my last ditch effort. WHAT I NEED HELP WITH! Here are my meshes...

stairs_high_mesh.obj
stairs_low_mesh.obj (note the UV's outside 0,1 are intended to be deleted for the final model.)

Download them here: DOWNLOAD LINK



Could someone please bake this out and give me some hope that there is a way to make this model seamless. I don't get it. My edges not set right? (using maya) Shells not setup correctly, this even possible on my low poly mesh? Make me a low poly mesh that does bake correctly.....show me all the errors of my ways. Be brutal, I need to be educated. PLEASE!!!!

I'll be forever greatful. THANK YOU!

Bek

Looks like you need to bake with a cage.

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

pixelpatron

I've tried that. doesn't work either...unless I'm doing it wrong.

xnormal steps I'm using....

load high meshes
load low meshes

click on 3d viewer

launch 3d viewer - show cage - edit cage (made it bigger than my meshes) - save cage (cage_stairs_low.sbm)

place cage on low poly mesh

bake.

here is my result. (AAAAAGGHHH, what am I doing wrong?) :poly127:

ghaztehschmexeh

Give me a minute and I will write up some pointers

ghaztehschmexeh

Okay so firstly you need to match your low poly and high poly closer. Look at the difference between mine and yours

Mine



Yours



This was probably your biggest issue. However there was some other issues I noticed which could cause headaches for you in the future. It's best to triangulate your mesh before you create your cage, as the cage may otherwise be triangulate differently (which you then wouldn't be able to use). I would also create cage manually inside of your 3D package. Lastly, You need to make sure that wherever you have a change in smoothing, you have a UV split. There was a place on the back part that you didn't do this for.

Hope this helps.

pixelpatron

:poly121:ghaz, you are a GOD! I don't get it?!!! So the low poly should intersect the high? I thought it had to be a little bigger?

What did you use to bake this? This was using my UV's?

Fwap

I gave it a go, didn't have any problems using the method you stated.
Try resetting xNormal to default settings.

*Edit* Disregard, ghaztehschmexeh nailed it.

ZacD

The low poly should be match the high poly as closely as possible. It helps if the corners of the poly poly matches up with the corners and the bevels of the high poly. They should be right on top of each other.

pixelpatron

I'm wondering if there is problem with my viewer, Ghaz, could load up the normal map your using? I want to see if I get the same results....(I tried default setting xnormal and still getting shit results.)

Thank you guys btw...not there yet. The fact it's even possible with something I've built is blowing my mind.

ghaztehschmexeh

ghaz, you are a GOD

QFT :P

I baked this in xnormal. I change the UV's a little because I changed the mesh, it wouldn't have changed anything. The low poly should be as close to matching the high poly as you can make it. I had this issue when I was newer too. Your low poly needs to be as close to an analogue of your high as it can be with the polys available to you. You shouldn't make it any bigger.

Here are the files if you want to check it out.

http://puu.sh/6UjQm.7z

And the normal map for the included low poly (won't work with your original).

Joopson

...I used your meshes exactly, but created the cage in Maya (Edit Mesh>Transform Component, with vertices selected, until it completely encapsulated the high-poly. Then I softened the cages edges.)

And it worked like a charm.




And here's the resulting normal map. (Y+)

http://i.imgur.com/u6kTNga.jpg

pixelpatron

Ghaztehschmexeh (someone) give me a breakdown in x-normal step by step/settings? If it's not my models or UV's something is screwing this up. Unless it's my viewer. (using p3d) The low final low poly model is the same as the one used in the bake correct? (no softening or hardening changes?)

ZacD

EDIT: mistake post.

pixelpatron

Thanks for the files ghaz, I'll try loadin em on my end and see if I can't get the same results....

THANK YOU!!!! brb. Hopefully with great results.

ghaztehschmexeh

I don't think I've done anything special in xnormal. Load high/low/cage, 2048x2048 map size, 2xAA, 16 edge padding, tangent space normal. I didn't check out your cage but it could be the issue. Try making it in your 3D program manually.

pixelpatron

Okay success! Kind of.....so the viewport render looks fair enough. Yet loading this into p3d view it looks like garbage. Is that just a problem with p3d? Or am I missing something? Even renders look like yucky too....more help!



Was the low poly mesh edges all set to hard? all of em?

Joopson

Try inverting (ctrl+i in photoshop) the green channel of the normal map to see if it helps. Otherwise, it could just be the engine.

pixelpatron

Joopson wrote: »

Try inverting (ctrl+i in photoshop) the green channel of the normal map to see if it helps. Otherwise, it could just be the engine.

Yep tried that. :poly122::poly142:

pixelpatron

So turns out p3d is a piece of crap? Ugh.....cause it looks mighty fine in sketchfab.

[SKETCHFAB]1264a4e28aa04663a537471103ab6e74[/SKETCHFAB]

Is there a way to load a model with multiple materials/textures in Sketchfab?

*figured it out, all you have to do is zip everything together and load it all at once....easy.

Stormfreek

I think p3d just wanted you to flip your green channel like many engines do :P

passerby

ya prolly the green channelo or the tangent bias in the viewer was to far from what maya and xnormal use.

you really should be previewing thigns in your target game engine.

pixelpatron

passerby wrote: »

ya prolly the green channelo or the tangent bias in the viewer was to far from what maya and xnormal use.

you really should be previewing thigns in your target game engine.

I don't have an engine, I'm doing a test for a studio, and they use a proprietary engine, I wanted my models view-able in some form of a 3-d package for review. Ideally ya, I'd use Unreal or Unity....but given the time frame I figured this would be faster and easier for them to review. Sadly flipping the green/red (variations of both) did not fix this issue. I reached out to p3d on the issue, hopefully they'll sort it out.

Thanks again gang, very educational.

ZanQdo

Hi Christopher, inverting the green channel gives the best result in my tests but not perfect, we're investigating the cause of this.

A bit of a side note: the thing with normal maps is they are not a direct height representation like bumps, they are more like a "codec". And there is no standard way of encoding/decoding normal maps so it can vary from software to software. However we are working on improved normal map support that should solve all your problems.

kind regards

pixelpatron

ZanQdo wrote: »

Hi Christopher, inverting the green channel gives the best result in my tests but not perfect, we're investigating the cause of this.

A bit of a side note: the thing with normal maps is they are not a direct height representation like bumps, they are more like a "codec". And there is no standard way of encoding/decoding normal maps so it can vary from software to software. However we are working on improved normal map support that should solve all your problems.

kind regards

Thanks ZanQdo! p3d is pretty cool, but this issue cost me about 4-6 hours of testing, re-baking, normal flipping, mesh remodeling, and minor insanity. Glad to hear it'll get sorted. Apologies for any rudeness on my behalf. Yesterday/last night was not a fun day for me. Guess I'll learn my lesson and reach out for help sooner.

ZanQdo

Oh yes, let us know and we're on it. BTW we already managed to do your first request (reloading textures)

kind regards

pixelpatron

Thanks again to all the folks who worked with me on this. Much appreciated.

pixelpatron

Busted out the rest of it....boo ya!

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