Highpoly to Lowpoly Max normal Map issues - Detail Loss

madmuffin

I've never been able to get the projection mapping bake in Max to work properly for me before. The only time I get reliable results is whenever the high poly mesh I am baking from is all a single piece of geometry, but that doesn't work in all cases.

Right now what I am working on is a gun trigger with two bar things next to it. I keep adding more and more unnecessary detail to the low poly because the normal bakes just wont work whenever I am baking from more then one object.



Before the low poly's edges on the inside and outside of the guard thingy used to be straight corners, not chamfered the way they are there, but I couldn't get it to bake the corner detail at all. Much worse was the inside edge where the disconnected pieces meet in the high poly was screwing all up completely.

Is there some magic trick or hint am I oblivious to when it comes to baking normal maps, or is the only solution adding more and more faces to your low poly till it works?

madmuffin

I hadn't seen it so ill take a look because I can't think of anything else to bake maps in.



That's from when it was square edged. The front strip screwing up and being all wobbly is because the project cage part keeps insisting on not being straight and Max doesn't have an align to X or Y when it comes to the projection cage, but that isn't my problem, the issues occur at the edge where the two meshes meet in the high poly.

low odor

xnormal is pretty handy


http://www.xnormal.net/1.aspx

madmuffin

my biggest worry is that I am going to put all this effort into building the entire high poly and then someone is going to look at it and tell me I did it completely wrong in every way and that it absolutely has to be a single piece for some reason, or the opposite, because all I know is that normals seem to go to hell in a hand basket wherever pieces meet when I try to bake.

low odor

If only there was some place one could learn...gather information...search for meaning...alas the great Ichi Tangent died hundreds of years ago...and the secret of the normal map formula died with him...

Just relax man...start simple...make mistakes..learn...read..search

madmuffin

Its nice and funny when you say it like that and all except I can't really sit and take time and learn and experiment and all that, because this has to be done in two weeks and done right the first time. I don't have the luxury of sitting around and making a million high poly meshes and experimenting for a thousand hours before I get it right and unlock the secret.

Which is why when this isn't working right I am stressing out and wasting valuable time that I have very little of, and I need to get the answers, not mess around with possibilities and googling other people's attempts.

EarthQuake

i'de suggest you have a read over this, http://wiki.polycount.net/Normal_Map

madmuffin

Thanks. That held lots of helpful and useful information. (:

Very illuminating.

low odor

yeah, that's the thing...all those thousands of hours have been put in...posted..discussed..rediscussed....discussed in committee..filed....folded into origami penis sculpture..and then posted on polycount...and the internet

here's a start:

http://wiki.polycount.net/Normal_Map
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=62780
http://www.nextgenhardsurface.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1354
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=36177
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=48305

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66ulKGSkJVo[/ame]