Zbrush decimated mesh > Max issues

knak47

I am decimating my meshes in order to get them into Max, but the decimated meshes have horrible overlapping vertices which cause serious shading errors and in-turn make my normals look like shit. I have tried the Check Mesh and Fix Mesh options under the geometry tab with no good results.

I would use xnormal to bake the Normals but I get different issues with the normals generated in Xnormal. even when I use the same custome cage and lowpoly that I am using to bake in MAX. I really just dont like XNormal.

I would really prefer to bake my normals in MAX. anybody have any Ideas what I can do to get these subtools into MAX, without having such shitty topology after decimation?

I mean i could sit there and target weld and repair the mesh once in MAX but that is unrealistic.

Ace-Angel

Run the Pro-Optimizer tool on the mesh, it will take a while but few crunches and it will be fixed.

Also, if you're having issues in XNormal in your cage and mesh, then you most likely are going to have the same issues in Max, so you might as well post that issues up while at it.

knak47

I dont have an issue with baking the normals in MAX my cage is fine. My bormals look great when baked in Max asside from the small shading errors i am getting around screw ports and stuff.

I have MAX 2009 where is the Pro-optimizer? And are you suggesting importing a 4 million poly mesh then running the Pro-optimizer, or run it on the already decimated mesh once in MAX?

cryrid

Do you have pics of the result, along with your Decimation settings?

knak47

cryrid wrote: »

Do you have pics of the result, along with your Decimation settings?

I can post some pics later tonight when I get off work. But it's pretty straight forward as far as the images go its just a bunch of pinching created by long triangles all meeting at extreme vertices.

As far as my decimation settings, Is there anything more than the settings within decimation master? Because all I really have the option to do, or at least all I am doing is preprocessing the current subtool then decimating it down to something that max can handle.

Ace-Angel

I mean decimate your model a little, and then import it in Max via GOZ and decimate it from there with Optimizer.

But since you have Max 2009, you need to download the extension/SP pack for it so you can get access to Pro-Optimzer, issue is, outside of certain issues, I think Autodesk needs you to pay extra for the extension, or they could have totally gotten rid of it, in which case, you next best bet is to either use Polycruncher and/or another crunching app.

You could also import you decimated model in Max, and run a few modifiers on it, like Auto-Smooth-Group, Weld all vertices on a very small threshold, Edit Mesh, etc, but without seeing the mesh I can't say if they will be successful.

knak47

I'll post some images in a bit.

I was going to use MeshLab to crunch it rather than decimation master. Ill try that next.

Has anybody else experienced this? It is a very common workflow I am using. The problem also is that none of these shading errors show up in ZBrush no matter the material I have applied. I only see them once I export them and open the model in Topogun or Max.

Ace-Angel

Yes, it's an issue where you need to simply make it work with ZB, it's doesn't have the best decimation tool in the world, so you have to know how much decimation is optimal for the mesh vs. stretches, etc.

You could also run Polish/Relax in ZB, in the deformation panel, it helps spread out the surface errors much better.

knak47

I reinstalled the newest decimation master. Apparently I didn't take care of this when I upgraded. Either way I am getting better results.

I'll post back if I continue to have issues. But it seams at this point that reinstalling decimation master and making sure I don't have symmetry enabled on my subtool helped out quite a bit.