Overlapping uvs with a normal map

Spunky

Hello. I am working on a dota 2 weapon and have been experimenting with overlapping uvs to save space. Problem I seem to be having is the normals are conflicting with each other...instead of just a even mirror. Like they are pushing opposite of each other.

I tried another bake with the uv not stacked and it came out perfectly.

So how does one properly overlap uvs when normal mapping?

I know it can be done! The guides valve released encouraged you to do it because of the very limited texture size

Sage

you offset the uvs out of the 01 space when you go bake.

Spunky

Sage wrote: »

you offset the uvs out of the 01 space when you go bake.

Alright. Is there a particular spot you need to put them or? I've only ever dealt with uvs in 01 :X

throttlekitty

Up, down, left or right, doesn't matter, so long as they are moved a whole unit. What you see in this square is the 0,1 space (a grid measured from lower left to upper right, center being 0.5,0.5)

Spunky

Alright so...as long as my uvs aren't in the top right part...it should work? Could you just mark where I put them please lol. I only really know the basics about uvs :[

tristamus

Like everyone's saying here, bake AS IF you only had one half of the model unwraped. Move the other half outside when baking, then snap it back AFTER baking. Voila, mirrored normals.

Edit: There is a way to OFFSET your UV's by 1 whole tile(any direction), which allows you to then bake in whatever app, then reverse that offset of UV's. What the people here are saying is it doesn't even matter where the offset UV's are, just get them out of the 0 to 1, bake, then put them back.

Neox

no snapping needed. just move the uvs out exactly one unit (or 2 or 3) in any direction. as long as the texture is tiled (not clamped or mirrored) it will work like a charm.

throttlekitty

In Maya, run this command:
polyEditUV -u -1 -v 0;
(I think, i'm bogged down with some bakes right now to check)

Spunky

Got it guys thanks a lot.