Horrid Baking Errors!

Garasin

Hi all, I'm trying to bake a normal map in 3dsMax but the result I'm getting is absolute horrid! I'm pretty sure my smoothing groups and UVs are setup correctly (seams on hard edges), there's no overlapping UVs and I've exploded the mesh when baking.

Can't seem to do it working, I've tried xNormal and I get the same result.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

ZacD

Are you using a cage? Post a picture of the normal map.

Garasin

Hey, yes I am using a cage. Here is the normal map (this was done in xNormal).

EarthQuake

Hmm, seems almost like your lowpoly mesh normals got corrupt at some point.

Trevor

Is your cage by any chance overlapping itself or any other part of the object?

The Rizzler

Just a guess but did you use animated keys to explode your mesh? If so, did you export as FBX rather than obj for xnormal?
It's a pretty simple mistake but one that I made not long ago
Only obj will preserve the exploded state, FBX will export the animation and will de-explode your mesh due to it being unexploded on the first frame

On second thought, like Trevor said your cage might be overlapping, try moving your objects much further from each other maybe

Garasin

Hey guys thanks for the replies, I went back and realigned the relevant pieces and spent a little more time hand tweaking the cage and it came out loads smoother. I'm assuming it must have been related to the cage somehow.

Still some slight errors but nothing that can't be fixed.
Thanks!