Normal maps showing weird artifacts

Felixb

Hey guys,

I'm currently working on a stair set for a level. And I modelled the low poly version in maya, imported into zbrush and sculpted it. And when I move on to xNormal somehow I get weird jagged edges on my normal map. I've played with the settings but I wasn't able to figure out what I did wrong.

Can you guys please help me on this one.

I'm fairly new to xNormal, followed some tutorial but they were all a little different from what I am trying here now.


Here is an overview:



The sculpted version is a bit diffrent from the low poly version because I sculpted every single brick, because I forgot that I built this stair from 8 bricks. So I have diffrent sculpts for the same UV, thats why it's a little diffrent.

I hope you guys can help me out, thanks for you time! :thumbup:

Obscura

this artifact is because your models uv islands are not matching with the smoothing groups. You used one smoothing gruop, and a lot of uv islands.try to match them

Arron

Hey,If you set up your models in Maya so that you have hard edges on all of the UV borders and re-export. Then setup in xNormal to use exported normals instead of average this might help give better results. Try using a cage in xNormal to. Check out this post has lots of info on it, and also a script for Maya to add hard edges to uv borders.

Eric Chadwick

I think the main problem here is not from the lack of hard edges, but because there are big dips in the highpoly, which are not represented in the lowpoly. For example, on the left end of the 2nd stair from the bottom. You should remodel the lowpoly to match the highpoly better.

Also you have the top of each stair riser too close to the bottom of the next riser, which is causing Xnormal to catch a little of the neighboring stair when it bakes. To solve this, either create a custom cage mesh, or create an exploded version your models so they aren't so close together during the bake.

Felixb

Thank you guys, those were all very usefull comments.
Eric Chadwick's was most useful!

Problem has been solved, thanks again guys!