Incorrect AO/Normal Baking in 3Ds Max

jaaamesss

Hi artists,

i am recreating modular building from crysis 2.
I have some problem with baking AO and Normals maps.

I attached one example. The stairs. In attachment there are screen shot from my work.


I make High poly, then Low poly model.
Then i UV unvrawp the Low poly.
Then i put on projection modifier and setup it for baking. You can see setup on my screen shots.

But i generates ugly maps. What happend? How to do it correctly? It should be working but i doesnt.

Can you help me pls?

jaaamesss

Here are screenshot from my work

jaaamesss

Here are more screens.

Here is my workflow, i dont know waht is wrong. I learnt it on Digital Tutors.

Blockout - HighPoly - LowPoly - UVunvrap LowPoly - Bake HP/LP phase - Texturing.

For now i can proceed to texturing because of baking part.

Kubajaniak

I'm not sure this is the reason of problem, but i think uv island should be same like smooth group in ur LP model. Now u have connected parts with different smooth groups. Try detach them, maybe this will help

frmdbl

Might automatic unwrap be the problem there?

jaaamesss

I unwrap it manually and make new UV accorndig to smoothing groups, but same problem.

I tried to bake it with out any smoothing, and still same problem.

Kubajaniak

Can u upload file with this stairs in max 2012 or 2010 format?

jaaamesss

Here i uploaded the max file. Never have this problem. It looks like it happend to models with 90° corners and close to this angle. But according tut any tutorial it is not the reason.

How can i attach max file? When i click on upload button it says invalid file format.

jaaamesss

Can you give me conctact so that i can send you my max file?

Kubajaniak

Just upload in to some server like rapigator and post link here

jaaamesss

here is the ling

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/uIwnmfa/Stairs.max


or

http://ulozto.cz/xdSNoiTk/stairs-max
if its not working ( big yellow button STAHNOUT)

jaaamesss

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/uIwnmfa/Stairs.max

jaaamesss

I tried to bake AO/Normals in XNormal and it makes much better results. It not perfect, but there s no black spots like diretcly from 3Ds max Scanline

jaaamesss

I make 4 bake test.

1. just create stairs mesh, unwrap it - normal mapping and leave it. Bake AO/Normals
Result: Where steps meet each other, there is no visual information. I looks like baking doesnt like sharp edges

Test 2.
Same geometry, but i conect UV islands as much as possible.
Result: Better visual appearence, but still sharp edges are black. In next test i tried to add more geometry to sharp corners.

Test 3.
Chamfer edges, 1 segment.
It looks better

Test 4.
Chamfer edges, 2 segments
Better than test 3. But still not good enough.

Lesson learnt: When you bake HighPoly with smooth sharp edges to LowPoly , you need to add more geometry to Low Poly.

But there is one question. I attached picture from Gears of War 2. You can see steps in left bottom corner. THe low poly version is few polygons with sharp edges, but how did they bake it?

jaaamesss

Screens from my testing

jaaamesss

UV you see the geometry

jaaamesss

And Gears of war image

Luka

It is probably unwrapped as one smoothing group and one uv island.

almighty_gir

1. check your smoothing groups. it looks like everything is faceted?
2. bake using a projection cage.

jaaamesss

So your advice it to use more Smoothing groups? I tried it, but didnt work. And i am using projection cage.

Every lerning video or book never told anything about Smoothing groups. They just unvrap things and bake it. Is that so importatnt?

One UV island is problem? i thought that is better than many uv isladns. I tried use more islads, but same result. Look at screens above

low odor

Not entirely sure this is your problem, but sometimes Max screws up it's smoothing groups...and it doesn't reflect it in the view-port..there's a couple ways to fix it..easiest seems to be Reset X-form. Covert to editable poly. Edit Normal-reset nomrals. Collapse back to edit poly...worth a try....couldn't check the file because I have a different version of Max

jaaamesss

I make another test with simple box. It looks like you cant bake high poly with smooth edges on low poly with very sharp edges like 90°. It appears black.

Here is my question: How do i create AO and Normals map from box with smooth edges and make a texture? Any idea?

It is same problem with stairs. How do you do that? For more complex mesh like the one i add in attachment?

Thank you.

jaaamesss

Here is video of Kubajaniak, who solve my problem. I aslo found the main reason of this problem. In RENDER SETUP window, there is part OPTIONS under COMMON tab. I accidantelly turn on FORCE 2-SIDED. This cause black spots on lighting maps.

Lesson learnt: For baking texture maps turn OFF Force 2-sided. I spend 4 days to find it and Kubajaniak help me a lot.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9RNLu4U1u8"]stairs - YouTube[/ame]