3point shader seam at symmetry point

Karaoke_Warrior

I'm having trouble figuring out why the 3point shader would show a seam where I used the symmetry modifier (with weld at seam). I'm using Max 2012 with Gamma/LUT disabled, D3D as my viewport display driver.

The pic shows the only portion of my mesh doing it. Basically it's a cylinder that is part of a symmetrical object. The shadow/seam doesn't show when Quality Normals are turned off. Which is kind of interresting since Quality Normals are supposed to give a more accurate representation.

Any ideas?

CrazyButcher

Hi,
hardly can see what you mean on this screenshot, but does the seam also show when using the normalmap in Max's scanline renderer (by using some default material and applying the normalmap to bump slot)?
The main point of QualityNormals was to make sure Max's internal representation is consistent across realtime and offline renderer. So if Max's internal representation has issues under that condition, we don't go beyond it.

Karaoke_Warrior

I tried the scanline renderer as you recommended and the seam isn't quite as obvious and the shadow doesn't break anymore, so I'm guessing it's okay now. I also threw it into marmoset just to see and there wasn't a visible seam at all.

I was just curious because the other times I've thrown the symmetry modifier it doesn't give me that shading cut you see run through the middle there. Also, the shadow breaking was bugging me. Thanks.

Karaoke_Warrior

I used xNormal (with swizzled Y). I also took care to use symmetry (before baking) on both the low poly (shifting the mirrored uvs by 1 unit to the right) and the high poly, just to make sure the vert normals weren't pulling.

I know it's the normal map because the seam disappears when I disable it. So I re-baked everything making sure the vert normals were all facing the right way. Maybe I missed something.

CrazyButcher

ohh, you will only get highest quality if you use Max for baking, as the tangent space used in for rendering through Quality Normals is synchronized to Max's baker, not Xnormals. If things aren't synced you will always get some artifacts of varying strength.

Karaoke_Warrior

Wow .. I am so embarrassed. I re-baked everything in Max just as you said and now everything displays fine. Thanks guys.