UDK Trouble

jaxeller

I am about two seconds away from never using Unreal again. I have spent hours double and triple checking everything I can think of. These modular pieces are unwrapped to tile perfectly and the smoothing groups are set up properly as well. I have tested the texture multiple times in Photoshop and 3Ds Max to make sure that it tiles seamlessly (and it does). The lightmaps I created following instructions from 3Dmotive and I made sure that they were properly imported into UDK. I have tried everything I can think of and this engine is still giving me a hard time. Can anyone think of what might be going on here? I really appreciate any help I can get.

Santewi

UDK really likes to do this with the lightmaps. Maybe this will help?

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/udk/udk-lightmaps-03-how-to-fix-light-shadow-lightmap-bleeds-and-seams.php

blankslatejoe

This is one of the most difficult problems with baked lighting--you might never be able to get rid of the seams entirely--even many of Epic's maps still have them when you look close. The trick is following the advice in Santewi's link, and then using as much of the texture and geo to hide the seam as possible...and then just having n acceptable 'tolerance' level for some things.

I remember tearing my hair over seams in Unreal--it's not fun..but likely the new Unreal is moving to Deferred rending, and a lot of these woes will be things of the past!

Pampers

try ticking off lightmap specular (named something like that) in the material properties

jaxeller

Hey guys thanks for the help. Really good link Santewi thanks for sharing. I feel pretty dumb; noticed that my lightmap resolution was 32 so I cranked that sucker up to 256 and that did the trick, cleaned them right up. However, like blankslatejoe said the seems wont disappear entirely. Looks like I will have to hide them with geometry and textures as best I can.

JamesWild

I wouldn't use a cranked lightmap to fix this.

It has HUGE implications on a full level. 256x256 isn't much... but for 100 of these items alone that's equivalent to a 2560x2560 texture map (I believe Lightmass uses several passes with other lighting data in too, and they will most likely not pack with 100% efficiency)

Turn off the SSAO, ensure lightmap UVs are pixel aligned.

ambershee

You'll notice that Epic often hides this using modular meshes with bevelled edges and such; that way the seam is even less visible.