Improving Waviness in Cylindrical Objects
polycounter lvl 5
Hi all,
Before I begin, I'd like to clarify that I'm aware this issue has been covered extensively in the past, such as on Earthquake's Sticky thread in this section (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154).
I understand the issue at hand, though specifically I'm seeking advice on the best option available to me for this object, which is a WIP Royal Mail Postbox. Below is a screenshot of my current Low Poly asset, with the current Normal Map applied.
To me, there's noticeable waviness within the Normal. There's one obvious option I have available to me which is essentially "MOAR GEO", but what I'm looking for is advice on where to add the geometry, as I do not think, insofar, I have been particularly sparing with it.
There's around 32 sides to this cylinder (few more sides added where the key hole was cut in) - which I felt was a reasonable amount of sides to use. If I add more sides, then the polycount of this will shoot up very quickly, and furthermore, adding in more sides to this would be limited to powers of 2 (16, 32, 64, etc.) unless I modelled the entire low poly from scratch, which could also be a nightmare.
Wireframe close-up:
Here's a few more screenshots inside Marmoset just for previewing purposes:
The most noticeable areas of waviness are at the front of the mesh, where the detailed ridging is in place.
Normal Map screenshot:
Note: I did these UVs pretty quickly for the sake of testing the bake. I'm aware they can be done much better!
I'm open to heavy criticism on this too, so don't hold back if you feel I've approached the entire low poly in the wrong way.
The whole idea of this object was to create something cylindrical that posed various modelling challenges. Everyone is welcome to look at the MAX files I've attached for this to see how I dealt with the high poly, but I imagine all of you pro's already know the best approach!
As always, replies are much appreciated. I've made the working files for this available @ https://www.sendspace.com/file/vofj8u in case anyone needs to look at the high poly, or any of the files in greater depth.
Before I begin, I'd like to clarify that I'm aware this issue has been covered extensively in the past, such as on Earthquake's Sticky thread in this section (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154).
I understand the issue at hand, though specifically I'm seeking advice on the best option available to me for this object, which is a WIP Royal Mail Postbox. Below is a screenshot of my current Low Poly asset, with the current Normal Map applied.
To me, there's noticeable waviness within the Normal. There's one obvious option I have available to me which is essentially "MOAR GEO", but what I'm looking for is advice on where to add the geometry, as I do not think, insofar, I have been particularly sparing with it.
There's around 32 sides to this cylinder (few more sides added where the key hole was cut in) - which I felt was a reasonable amount of sides to use. If I add more sides, then the polycount of this will shoot up very quickly, and furthermore, adding in more sides to this would be limited to powers of 2 (16, 32, 64, etc.) unless I modelled the entire low poly from scratch, which could also be a nightmare.
Wireframe close-up:
Here's a few more screenshots inside Marmoset just for previewing purposes:
The most noticeable areas of waviness are at the front of the mesh, where the detailed ridging is in place.
Normal Map screenshot:
Note: I did these UVs pretty quickly for the sake of testing the bake. I'm aware they can be done much better!
I'm open to heavy criticism on this too, so don't hold back if you feel I've approached the entire low poly in the wrong way.
The whole idea of this object was to create something cylindrical that posed various modelling challenges. Everyone is welcome to look at the MAX files I've attached for this to see how I dealt with the high poly, but I imagine all of you pro's already know the best approach!As always, replies are much appreciated. I've made the working files for this available @ https://www.sendspace.com/file/vofj8u in case anyone needs to look at the high poly, or any of the files in greater depth.
Replies
Also it would help if you modeled your high poly to bake well onto a lowpoly. Making 90 degree angles into a bit less extreme of angles helps, and people don't notice.
And also, what Zac saying is true.
I started with 64 sides on the cylinder because it was the most appropriate amount to start with due to the location of the mail slot, and the door on the post box. When it came to the low poly I felt 64 sides was too many so halved it to 32. I'll definitely give the method shown with sides a go on future high poly objects!
I've added more vertical edge loops, as shown:
Is this a good place to add additional geometry, or have I misunderstood?
No changes have been made to the smoothing groups. Just added some additional edge loops in. I could add more in, and then reduce the amount of smoothing groups (letting control edges control smoothing more) but as above I'm weary about sending the polycount too high.
Obscura- there is an issue with that technique, if you look at the sloped angle, the traditional high poly has a nice and smoother highlight than on the one with the modified highpoly. Although I think you could easily improve that with a bit of tweaking.
I'm a little bit confused, then, when you say "vertical". I may have misinterpreted what you meant.
Do you mean, add more sides to the cylinder, essentially?
Cheers!
I'll go back and add more edge loops to try fix the distortion - comes with the big polycount jump though as there's a lot of horizontal edge loops within the piece controlling the detail.