Baking Normalmap Issue

Greg DAlessandro

Does anyone know:
-Why the side of the hexagon baked weird? (second image outlined in black)
-How to fix it?
Thank you.





I've tried with different edges and it always comes out like this.
I already tried adding an edgeloop in the center of the side, and deleting those extra edges around the top and bottom, but it didn't help.

SuperFranky

If you really need to bake down this low poly ngon, you get these issues probably because of smoothing issues (smoothing groups).

You should subdivide the ngon model before baking it.

jfitch

Looks like you've got a ton of edge padding and lines are actually the end of your mesh. Hard to tell if thats the case or not. Also do what Franky said.

Greg DAlessandro

the bottom of the hexagon is open.

This is the result of subdividing the mesh. There are also no ngons in the model.





I still can't get rid of the weird normalmap issue about halfway up on the side of the hexagon shape.

huffer

You can bake without a cage and blend the two bakes together were the issues are.

Greg DAlessandro

huffer wrote: »

You can bake without a cage and blend the two bakes together were the issues are.

How would you do that?

SuperFranky

Maybe you just have very tight edges in higpoly because of your edge loops, try to get rid of a few of them and see how it goes.

Greg DAlessandro

I did but same result..

AdvisableRobin

I've tried to reproduce the problem but I'm not having any luck. What are you baking in and what file type are you saving the normal map too?

Greg DAlessandro

I'm saving it as a Targa. I've also tried png. Both had same results.

Quack!

Is your uv layed out properly?

If your uvs are fine, then your projection cage could be at odd angles for each vert which could cause this. If you are baking this to a flat plane then just drag the cage straight upwards until it covers your high+low. Also, if you are baking to a flat plane then a cage is useless and you can use ray distance.

Don't bake two normal maps out and photoshop them together, thats poor practice.

Greg DAlessandro

Yes my uv's are layed out properly for both the hexgon and the cube.


How would you use ray distance instead of a cage for a transfer map?

Quack!

The high poly doesn't need UV's.

I don't use Maya, so I can't help you much technically there, but I am sure google has plenty of tutorials on how to bake normal maps, as it is common.

KurtR

Not sure Im seeing this right, but to me the normal map seems to be a perfect reflection of your HP. The lines on the sides is seen in your HP model also. If you need to get rid of that you should just place everything in one smoothing group and it should even out fine.

Greg DAlessandro

KurtR wrote: »

Not sure Im seeing this right, but to me the normal map seems to be a perfect reflection of your HP. The lines on the sides is seen in your HP model also. If you need to get rid of that you should just place everything in one smoothing group and it should even out fine.

The image on the first picture isnt correct (it already had the baked texture map onto the cube which shows an illusion that the edges of the hexagon are halfway up)

Edit: each test bake I do I create a new material.

KurtR

Sorry, I was looking at the wrong image there. Try experimenting with the envelope settings. It seems that might be it, but thats all I can think of. Hope you figure it out.

throttlekitty

Are your transforms frozen and history cleared for both meshes?

How far into the cube is the hexagon sunk? And which search method are you using in Transfer Maps? (at the bottom, in "advanced options")

Bartalon

Does your low poly need to be a thin cube? Try baking to a plane if you only need one side. By the looks of how the sides of your cube are picking up the normals, it would lead me to believe that you have stacked UVs which would cause baking errors.

JustMeSR

It also might be an issue with cage.

(This is what xNormal does with cages by default: )