Normal Map and Seams

phrit

Hello, I've made a model in Zbrush and I'm trying to render it in 3ds max's Vray using the generated Normal Map from Zbrush.
The problem is where it has UV seams, it seems that the color data changes somehow and this cause some really strange abnormality in the rendering...

I've searched a lot in Google, but no luck.
Also tried to bake the map in xnormal, results almost the same



Is there a way to fix this - apart from "hiding" the seams somewhere in the model?

EarthQuake

You can't look at a normal map as if its a diffuse map and deduct that there is an error. Your normal map looks perfectly fine.

Try setting it up with a realtime shader or game engine, this is most likely an issue with vray or your vray settings.

phrit

Render in Marmoset... same problem

EarthQuake

Did you try inverting the green channel?

In toolbag, set the tangents (in the mesh properties) to 3ds max, then you won't need to invert the green.

phrit

I decided to test a render in marmoset without any normal map and, surprisingly, even without the map the seams seems very outward, just like in the last picture I posted.
So it's not the maps fault anyway :S

Are UV seams meant to look like that?
Do I need to hide them now and ever in every model I make?
I believe I am missing something very basic here...

Teyon

Did you give any padding to your maps? Most programs allow you to extend the texture a certain number of pixels beyond the border of the UVs to help prevent seams from appearing.

EarthQuake

phrit wrote: »

I decided to test a render in marmoset without any normal map and, surprisingly, even without the map the seams seems very outward, just like in the last picture I posted.
So it's not the maps fault anyway :S

Are UV seams meant to look like that?
Do I need to hide them now and ever in every model I make?
I believe I am missing something very basic here...

Make sure you have mesh normals on when exporting obj, not just smoothing groups. Also try FBX if obj isn't working out. Max can be a bit of a pain to find the right export settings.

phrit

wow! exporting mesh normals in the obj reduced the seam to almost nothing!





amazing, that was what I was looking for!
thank you

tainted_wisdom

What hey, where do we export mesh normals?

Since few days i am going mad on this issue.