A little advice
polycounter lvl 11
Just a few questions...
I'm planning on making some modular walls for an environment. I've made texture by using photoshop and transfer mapping onto a flat plane with no problems. This time I wanted to make a modular wall that isn't so flat to make my scene more visually interesting.
I've created a plane and pushed the middle section inwards. I have beveled some edges for the hi poly and want to transfer map it onto a low poly mesh.
I did have some difficulty with dark lines appearing or a strong gradient in the normal map along section that were meant to be completely flat. However with a bit of research I have resolved this issue and now have a little control over how the maps get generated by applying hard edges to the low poly. However, I'm still getting a problem with how the normal map is being generated.
As you can see it's as if the normal map looks inverted on the low poly mesh. Is there a way to resolve this?
Sorry but this question has probably been asked loads already but never felt like I've found a definitive answer. My low and high poly meshes were stacked directly on top of each other with 0% envelope. Is this approach ok for creating a normal map?
Another question I want to ask is: since the wall is quite low poly is it even worth going to such lengths with such basic geometry to smooth out the edge and just use the 'high poly' mesh, with perhaps a few less bevels in it? If not that's fine as I'd rather try and acheive the lowest possible polycount anyways.
And... would something as simple as this have a much quicker workflow is I was to make the texture completely in Photoshop?
Hopefully this may be useful for anyone with similar problems
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
I'm planning on making some modular walls for an environment. I've made texture by using photoshop and transfer mapping onto a flat plane with no problems. This time I wanted to make a modular wall that isn't so flat to make my scene more visually interesting.
I've created a plane and pushed the middle section inwards. I have beveled some edges for the hi poly and want to transfer map it onto a low poly mesh.
I did have some difficulty with dark lines appearing or a strong gradient in the normal map along section that were meant to be completely flat. However with a bit of research I have resolved this issue and now have a little control over how the maps get generated by applying hard edges to the low poly. However, I'm still getting a problem with how the normal map is being generated.
As you can see it's as if the normal map looks inverted on the low poly mesh. Is there a way to resolve this?
Sorry but this question has probably been asked loads already but never felt like I've found a definitive answer. My low and high poly meshes were stacked directly on top of each other with 0% envelope. Is this approach ok for creating a normal map?
Another question I want to ask is: since the wall is quite low poly is it even worth going to such lengths with such basic geometry to smooth out the edge and just use the 'high poly' mesh, with perhaps a few less bevels in it? If not that's fine as I'd rather try and acheive the lowest possible polycount anyways.
And... would something as simple as this have a much quicker workflow is I was to make the texture completely in Photoshop?
Hopefully this may be useful for anyone with similar problems
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Replies
As for the issue as to whether or not you should just have a normal map on something so basic. It's really up to you. I would just add more detail in general but if it's a wall with like 100 polygons in the hi-poly, it's safe to assume you can just decrease the bevel and it will look fine.
Remember, modelling is about knowing when to add detail and when not to. If it really doesn't make a difference, don't worry about it.
I do need to get much better at transfer mapping, however.
Thank you for your response.