More baking maps problems..

tonyd927

Got 90% of the way through with redoing my shotgun ( trying to better myself at material definition, texturing and whatnot.)
And for whatever reason xNormal wont let me bake maps.
"xNormal has thrown an exception" error and nothing happens. :poly127:

So anywho, I decided to go through millenia's tutorial again and actually remade my remington 870 to look a little better. Or so I thought..

Upon baking the maps and applying them I found several areas that have issues.

Here are my AO and Normal map texture sheets:




As you can see, at the pump there's this white "rectangle" on the pump. No idea why it's there..the cage seems fine and the models mesh up pretty closely.

And upon looking closer at the front of the pump. This just looks like a complete mess. None of these artifacts, wobbly edges or dark edges show up in Millenia's tutorial, so what exactly am I doing wrong here?



And for whatever reason, on FLAT surfaces, there is a ton of waviness...why?!







I have even included my 3ds max scene if anyone can figure this out, I will give you a hug..somehow..someday..


Thank you!!!!


http://www.filedropper.com/870bakenoclip


:thumbup:

Mr Digital

Is because of you smoothing groups, and try RESET X-FORM, that could fix those problems on your model.

tonyd927

Mr Digital wrote: »

Is because of you smoothing groups, and try RESET X-FORM, that could fix those problems on your model.

What's wrong with my smoothing groups? I used "Auto smooth by UV island" in textools, just like Millenia did. He didn't have these issues.

Also, I reset xForms already, didnt solve anything.

EarthQuake

It looks like your normal map isn't applied correctly, or you have gamma correction set up wrong (this seems to be a common issue with normal maps in max, but I'm not a max guy so I can't tell you more.

The AO thing is really weird though. Do you have duplicate faces on the high or low in those bright areas?

tonyd927

EarthQuake wrote: »

It looks like your normal map isn't applied correctly, or you have gamma correction set up wrong (this seems to be a common issue with normal maps in max, but I'm not a max guy so I can't tell you more.

The AO thing is really weird though. Do you have duplicate faces on the high or low in those bright areas?

The gamma correction is off
The normal maps are being viewed with xoliul's shader. Im just so lost at this point. I thought each UVW island having their one smoothing group was...the right thing to do?

EarthQuake

Yeah, what you're doing with the SGs should be fine. Does Xoliul's shader work with other assets for you? I know with recent versions of max it no longer works properly.

You could try loading in in Toolbag 2 as well, just make sure to export obj with mesh normals on and then change the tangent space to max in the per-mesh options. This should tell you if its a problem with your actual mesh and normal map or just a problem with your display in max.

tonyd927

EarthQuake wrote: »

Yeah, what you're doing with the SGs should be fine. Does Xoliul's shader work with other assets for you? I know with recent versions of max it no longer works properly.

You could try loading in in Toolbag 2 as well, just make sure to export obj with mesh normals on and then change the tangent space to max in the per-mesh options. This should tell you if its a problem with your actual mesh and normal map or just a problem with your display in max.

You literally saved my project lol. It was just 3ds max acting all weird..I rebaked the new mesh and put it into marmoset, the normal map's a little weak but it's more readable now. Thanks!

tonyd927

Only problem Im having now is Im still getting tons of waviness on flat surfaces...and for whatever reason, my floating geo isnt baking into the normal map..

EarthQuake

Can you show a screenshot of what you mean by waviness?

For the floating geometry, does your cage fully cover the floating elements? Are the floaters selected in the highpoly mesh list in RTT?

tonyd927

it's hard to see it in these images, but the area around the ejection port looks like it's got several different smoothing groups..even though it's on one sg




and here as well, when you rotate the camera to the buttstock looking down the barrel, it looks dark grey, but when looking at it straight on, it's got these weird normals issues.

EarthQuake

Ah you're seeing problems in max. Trouble is, Max's viewport shaders don't match the tangent space with max's baker. These means you'll often see smoothing errors like this.

Do you see the same smoothing problems in TB2?

tonyd927

I still have TB1 but actually yes, but it's not as noticeable in TB.
It just looks like a "shadow"
Hmmm, just playing around with materials. I lost the "dark metal" look as I had in max. the metal parts look too fake for me in marmoset. (again, this is user error lol)




I think the specular map looked better in max, but so far I can see the wood doesnt look that great and the metal can use some loving.

EarthQuake

Yeah the tangent space in TB1 doesn't match max either, so you'll see errors smoothing errors there too. In TB2 we support Max, Maya and Xnormal (mikktspace) tangent spaces though, which makes it easier to get accurate normal map bakes. You can try the free trial if you're curious to see if the issue goes away when using the Max tangent space in TB2.

As far as your spec map goes, I think you would benefit a lot from creating a nice gloss map. It looks like your material uses an even glossiness value?

tonyd927

EarthQuake wrote: »

Yeah the tangent space in TB1 doesn't match max either, so you'll see errors smoothing errors there too. In TB2 we support Max, Maya and Xnormal (mikktspace) tangent spaces though, which makes it easier to get accurate normal map bakes. You can try the free trial if you're curious to see if the issue goes away when using the Max tangent space in TB2.

As far as your spec map goes, I think you would benefit a lot from creating a nice gloss map. It looks like your material uses an even glossiness value?

I have a gloss map made as well, not in marmoset.. I believe it goes in the alpha of the specular?

thanks again for your help!!:thumbup::thumbup:
hmm, the price is very nice on TB2. I may just snag that:thumbup:

EarthQuake

Yeah for TB1, gloss goes in the spec alpha. In TB2, there is a specific slot for gloss.

tonyd927

EarthQuake wrote: »

Yeah for TB1, gloss goes in the spec alpha. In TB2, there is a specific slot for gloss.

Thanks man! You rule!