BLOODY tangent normal mirroring

achmedthesnake

hi guys i desperatly requesting any input on this problem:tangent normal map mirroring

HELP

- i' ve finally had it with my wasted attempts at trying to get this to working - and i 've browsed the 'ultimate mapping thread' to to avail, i just can't seem to get this to work in every example........
this regards a mirroring inverted error i can't get rid of:





- everyone says to "put the mirrored uv's outside the 1:0 uvbox before baking" - done that - no solution
- even only baking half the mesh - again no solution
- and i know it's something to do with my process < as the same error comes up in any external or local .fx/hlsl shaders i can find.........

so...

i'm using 3dsmax7 - and originally created this particular geometry using the symmetry modifier -
unwrapped one half, and then used symmetry to make a whole model (and therefore the other half unwrapped)...



so i move the 'left side uv's' using a 1:1 offset so there are outside the usual box coordinates - and bake either using the inbuilt render to texture or xnormal (doesn't matter) - the map renders out fine.
when i apply it - i get the usual left side fine - right side crappy effects ## REGARDLESS of what shader i'm using

is this a 3dmax verison problem?
the way i've originally modelled it?
(im possibly thinking the use of symmetry fucked it up?)
'
you guys can do what you want with the files:
http://www.achmedthesnake.com/images/wip/cyclops.obj
http://www.achmedthesnake.com/images/wip/cyclops.max

any help would be great when you have the time,

Josh_Singh

"i'm using 3dsmax7"
that is what's wrong.

achmedthesnake

dude- serious?
so prob solved if i go one version upwards -or go straight to 3dsmax 2008?

MoP

Or use a different viewport shader.
Does Max7 support custom DX shaders? I can't remember.

Max's default viewport shaders for normalmapping are pretty dodgy. It's much better to get a 3rd-party one (like JIStyles skin shader, Ben Cloward's, or Brice Vandemoortele's), they look much better, run faster, and have more shading options.

achmedthesnake

yup - been there done that, - i've used ji styles's one - Ben clowards one and Bryce's one - doesn't make a difference............the artifacts in the image are the result of a bad normal bake - not the shaders..

Eric Chadwick

Does it render with the scanline renderer properly? You know, Bitmap inside a Normal Bump map inside a Standard material...

If it still looks wrong, it's probably that Max 7 doesn't use the tangent basis properly. Better bet is to export to Xnormal, bake and render there.

Michael Knubben

Achmed: if you think about it, if it renders fine on the one side, it can't be the normalmap. I'd follow Eric's suggestion and look into using Xnormal.

bugo

well, same here in max 9, use 2008

Eric Chadwick

Mirroring works for me without problems in Max 9, just have to 1) bake in max, and 2) use the right shader.
http://wiki.polycount.net/Normal_Map#ShadersAndSeams

achmedthesnake

cheers guys, ill try it after uni...