faceted normalmap problem
polycounter lvl 7
Recently I noticed a big problem with my normalmaps that I can't get solved. The normalmaps on different models lead to faceted shading that looks really odd, especially on very glossy surfaces. I tried for hours to get it of and googleling for solutions but I could not even find someone with a similar problem anywhere so I start to get the fealing that I miss something really important here.
This is my normal workflow.
- model highpoly
- remove edgeloops and collapse vertices to get to the lowpoly
- put in a shrinkwrap modifier to put the lowpoly as close as possible to the highpoly(using blender, no idea what something like this is called in max or maya)
- manual tweaks to the lowpoly
- Unwrap, mark seams and hard edges at seams where it makes sense
- Bake
I tried baking with Blender, Xnormal and Substance Designer and also an object space map converted to tangent space with handplane. All with the same result.
I collected all images that could be helpfull solving this, if you need to see anything else please tell me.
Faceted Shading:
Lowpoly
Highpoly, the additional details are made via heighmap-->normalmap, but the problems does not come from there, it persists with only the baked map applied:
Normalmap and UV:
If I push up the contrast on the normalmap very high I can see the same patterns as on the model. So the faceting is in the map but on a level that is normally not visible.
Any help here is greatly appreciated, thank you!
This is my normal workflow.
- model highpoly
- remove edgeloops and collapse vertices to get to the lowpoly
- put in a shrinkwrap modifier to put the lowpoly as close as possible to the highpoly(using blender, no idea what something like this is called in max or maya)
- manual tweaks to the lowpoly
- Unwrap, mark seams and hard edges at seams where it makes sense
- Bake
I tried baking with Blender, Xnormal and Substance Designer and also an object space map converted to tangent space with handplane. All with the same result.
I collected all images that could be helpfull solving this, if you need to see anything else please tell me.
Faceted Shading:
Lowpoly
Highpoly, the additional details are made via heighmap-->normalmap, but the problems does not come from there, it persists with only the baked map applied:
Normalmap and UV:
If I push up the contrast on the normalmap very high I can see the same patterns as on the model. So the faceting is in the map but on a level that is normally not visible.
Any help here is greatly appreciated, thank you!
Replies
Does that mean everytime I have a 90 degree edge I should place a UV seam and hard edge?
Yes, or chamfer/bevel the edge if you can.
When you are baking the normal map, try using a 16bit tiff and converting it to an 8bit image in Photoshop, that will dither the image and smooth out the banding artifacts.