XNormal problems

Cheeky_Pickle

Hiya guys, totally new to 3d. I keep getting stuck on parts and have a few questions i'm sure you guys will be able to help out with.

So I'm at the stage of converting a high poly to low poly so I can put it into my scene. I created the low poly over the high poly and then used the 'render to material' option with 3ds max. The outcome was not as powerful as I'd like so I've tried to use xNormal instead. I'm getting weird outcomes with Xnormal though and I think I'm doing something wrong but can't figure out what. Below I've put some pictures.

This is the high poly model right and the low poly model with 3dsmax normal on top. (Side by side to show)



Here is how I had them when I exported them as first OBJ files which didn't work at all in XNormal and then xNormal SBM files which gave me some results.


Here is the normals side by side, xNormal left and 3dsmax right.



So it seems to me that xNormal isn't following my unwrap at all? Should it be?

Thanks everyone, much appreciation from a newbie

.Wiki

Make sure to freeze all your transformations before you export to xnormal. Maybe there is some scaling on your low, or highpoly mesh.
Also check if you got some scaling on your meshes in your xnormal settings.

Cheeky_Pickle

@.Wiki I froze the transformations using the xform modifier in 3dsmax, and ensured there was no scaling in xNormal too. No change

GlowingPotato

is your Lp and Hp mesh at same world space position ? are you using cage?

AdvisableRobin

The better result you are getting in 3DS is probably because you were using a Cage to bake it with and not one with xNormal. However looking at the lowpoly I would consider reworking that to more closely match the highpoly since even with the planets aligning you will still have problems with the bake simply due to there being too great of a different between the high and low.

I don't use 3DS personally but I would see if you are able to maybe just take the highpoly and use some kind of reduce modifier and just lower the number of polys on that a few times. Or go back through and manually give it a more detailed retopology.

Cheeky_Pickle

@GlowingPotato They are yeah, right on top of one another. I wasn't using a cage no, but I just did so and it fixed out the problem with the xnormal normal! Thank you!

@AdvisableRobin Thanks Robin, I just edited my mesh some more to ensure there is non of the high poly sticking out.

Overall it seemed to work but the 3dsmax version was still better when applied to the model. This might be because as AdvisableRobin said my meshes weren't completely the same and maybe 3dsmax was covering up a little for me. When I come back to this next time i'll ensure I do it right from the beginning.

GlowingPotato

Glad we helped. =]

Cheeky_Pickle

@GlowingPotato I wish there was a little + option to give people when they help you out as a little thank you :}

Thanks again!