How would one approach this bake?

YannickStoot

So I am working on this model and I just have no idea how I should fix it. The model bakes with quite extreme waviness. Which is expected if you look at the geo etc. But I just have no idea how be able to fix it. I can't afford to give these models a high number of poly's.

Low


High

Marmoset

FourtyNights

I don't think there's no other way than adding more geo, because that's the nature of baking. Any particular reason why can't you go with higher polygon count?

YannickStoot

FourtyNights said:

I don't think there's no other way than adding more geo, because that's the nature of baking. Any particular reason why can't you go with higher polygon count?

This is a connector piece for a pool noodle. It will be copied in the scene a lot and can thus become a bottleneck in the scene if people decide to use it many times.

musashidan

Nature of the beast, alright. You could start by fixing up the mesh. As it is it looks pretty messy. You should definitely add more geo if this is going to be relatively close viewing and noticeable  in-engine. Also, you could use FWVN and trade off the extra texture for more triangles. The mesh will be instanced anyway.

Remember.......Normal maps only create magic some of the time.....

YannickStoot

musashidan said:

Nature of the beast, alright. You could start by fixing up the mesh. As it is it looks pretty messy. You should definitely add more geo if this is going to be relatively close viewing and noticeable  in-engine. Also, you could use FWVN and trade off the extra texture for more triangles. The mesh will be instanced anyway.

Remember.......Normal maps only create magic some of the time.....

Why do you say the mesh looks messy? It's basically the high poly without the extra support edges.

I think you guys are right though. I'm going to check whether LOD might be a good way to fix this issue. Making 2-3 versions of this model and then switch in between on distance. The might just not be a magic fix for this model.

I did not understand what you meant with "You could use FWVN and trade off the extra texture for more triangles. The mesh will be instanced anyway." Could you explain?

musashidan

By messy I mean the circular cutout isn't circular(I've no idea what a pool noodle is but I'm guessing the hole is circular) and the thickness isn't parallel. Also, the way the verts are spaced along the surface around the sides of the holes is resulting in a nasty thin area that really shows in the bake. Plus you have some really long, thin tris. Here's a quick example I made to show the difference:


And if you really want to save a few tris you could optimise the inside as it won't be seen in detail.

FWVN(face weighted vertex normal) is just another option in deriving a final asset. A useful method to know. Here's a vid from my YT channel explaining it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kizs6RIa1dQ

Instancing(meshes/materials/textures) is a way of cutting down on overhead. Here's another vid explaining it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMIbV2rQO4k&t=236s

YannickStoot

Major thanks! I'm starting to understand when to save and when to not save on tris. I was using the long tris to save an extra 1-2 polys but created a thin triangle in the process. It might not be worth the downside.

On the topic of the angles. The pool noodle connector has a boolean running straight through the cylinder. So the inner edges are not on a 90 degree angle like your example. But I'm considering to change this as nobody really cares what the original looks like. Anyway, I'm going to give the face weighted normals a try! Can indeed be worth it! Thanks!