Crazybump seams? (normal map->OCC->seam)

vik

I`m trying to generate an occlusion map from my normal map and when I put it in the DIFF slot in Max I get a nasty seam. Is it because there is a problem with the normal map/my cbump settings or it`s natural and have to clean it up in PS? (got this with the spec map too :poly110: )

Eric Chadwick

Crazy Bump doesn't do it's magic using the model's tangent space vectors, it just works in 2D, so you'll probably get seams from CB wherever the original normalmap has seams.

vik

Thnaks Eric. I managed to clean it up relatively painlessly. I wonder, what is the best way to create these maps? In Max, Xnormal or CB? I`m assuming Xnormal in this case, while CB is better for environment stuff? Please correct me if I`m wrong.

Ryan Clark

Yeah, CrazyBump's not gonna do the best job with seams like that, I'm afraid!

It'll do a better job if you make sure to bleed across your seams as much as possible, but even then it may not be perfect!

arrangemonk

thats the shit with generated normals and uv- seams
i remember there were some tricks for that, but i cant remember how they worked hrrhrr

Eric Chadwick

A couple methods for 3ds max, one using mental ray, another using a light dome.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=651838

vik

I also found this for xnormal. Gonna test these two methods (mray and xnormal) to see if there is any difference

http://donaldphan.com/tutorials/xnormal/xnormal_occ.html