X-Shaped Normal Artifacts in 3ds Max. Issue as old as Polycounts

Fridock

Going back to this again. Doing all all my bakes in Substance Painter/Marmoset Toolbag 3 and everything looks cool everywhere until i try it inside Maya or Max and it get's these small x shaped artifacts. Now i know it's because i didn't triangulate before baking.
Question is - is there a way to fix it in Maya/Max (Like sometimes if normals look weird in Unreal 4, you can choose different Normal space and it fixes it), or i have to triangulate stuff like that before baking?

(^ Vray render from max)

pior

When thinking about triangulation, remember that : 

- If you don't have control over how a given environment picks diagonals (shortest distance ? lowest curvature ? random ?), then they'll probably be picked differently from what you want.

- Triangulation affects surface quality.



With that in mind, one way to fix it ... would be to investigate your pipeline thoroughly so that you know exactly how each app/importer/exporter does it, and make sure to use the same triangulation algorithm every step or the way. Or ... triangulate before export/baking.

Good luck !

poopipe

That really is the simplest solution. 
If you're in max just bash a turn to poly/mesh modifier on top of the stack - in maya,  well,  that's your own fault for using maya..

Tangent basis probably isn't coming into play here but it's worth remembering that max/maya probably aren't working in the same space as substance or ue4 so it'll look wrong anyway 

Fridock

Thanks for the replies. Think i'll stick with triangulating some places in future before backing. Regarding my issue with wrong normals on the revolver drum - i'm actually a dumbass and i forgot to flip green channel, so it actually looks perfect now in max (its been months since the last time i did anything in max). Still i had some issues like this in maya in past.