///// (help)Skirt Filtering \\\\\

konstruct

Hey all, so recently Ive been doing some normal map tests in max and I`ve recently heard about skirt filtering within Kaldera.

<font color="yellow">My question is does max 8 have another term for this feature? </font>
Ive been searching everywhere and can`t find a thing. if anyone could provide some insight on this that would kick ass.

thanx 4 yur time

KDR_11k

What's it do?

MoP

Yes, if you could give a description of what this "Skirt Filtering" feature does, I could tell you if Max8 has it or not.

At a guess, it's probably similar to Max's "Edge Padding" setting, where the edges of the UV chunks are expanded outwards by an arbitrary number of pixels, to prevent seams showing when mip-mapping.

There are a couple of people on this forum who use Kaldera though, maybe they will know for sure.

konstruct

Yes exactly- edge padding I didnt even begin to know what it was called, I should have posted a description, but I just assumed people would know what I`m talking about-

on an unrelated note, I posted this on CG talk yesterday and I still have no replies. I just got 2 replies within 10 min on polycount. clearly polycount is king you guys rock.

MoP

Zing!
Happy to help.

konstruct

okay I`m having problems again. <--short bus. even when I crank that shite up to 64, I see no effect.

My workflow-
I have the detail mesh (high poly) and the render mesh (low poly ) set up.

*I select the render mesh, and open up the RTT diolouge.
*I select the Detail mesh for bake
*I turn of the cage (due my models hard surface nature).
*I`m using Catmull-Rom antialiasing
*I`m using Hammersley Global Supersampeling
*I set the padding to 64 (just so I can see the results)

then hit render, and everthing works except for the edge padding. is there a gap in my understanding of how edge padding works?

let me know pleeese

MoP

Oh - it doesn't display the edge padding in the render preview.
If you save the file (using the file-output settings in the Render to Texture window) and then open the outputted file, you'll see the edges all nicely expanded.

fritz

wish i could help...i use the cage w/a padding of 2....so far works for me.

i will say this in response to your quote about polycount. place is eff'n rad. MoP and others have come to my rescue quite often...so you're in good hands.

konstruct

OH man- I totally forgot that that buffered window is lame like that. makes sense now, I think I got it. thanx a ton all for all your help. much appreciated.

oXYnary

If you plan on shrinking the final normal map by half, would you say a padding of 4pixels would be enough? I mean, what tyoe of padding "X" do you need from going large to small?

Example
4096 to 2048 = 8 pixels?
2048 to 1024 = 4 pixels?
1024 to 512 = 2 pixels?

Eric Chadwick

I've heard 4pixels for 512's. Best bet though is to try it, then test in-game, see if you get bleeding as it mips down.

Re: Kaldera... I used to be a dedicated user/evangalizer, but now I use RTT. So many more options.

One thing I haven't found in RTT though is the ability to restrict the rendering to selected faces on the high-res model. Kaldera has this... why doesn't RTT? It does have material ID matching, but that seems like a pain to setup.