Problem with smoothing groups

grimsonfart

Hi there...

I'm having big problems with smoothing groups on my rock and i can't seem to be able to fix it. It's been haunting me for a long time but i haven't really started noticing it before now. Here are a few pics of a lowpoly rock with a normal map on it.

As you can see in the pictures, there are seperate issues when the normal map is on, and when it's not. I don't know what to do...







I can't spot any issues on the normals map, baked out as i have done a thousand times...

Deadly Nightshade

Have you checked for corrupt geometry?

grimsonfart

Well, why would they be any? And how can that be the problem? And no, i can't find any

Revel

Actually what is the problem? What I can tell is that just a shadow stepping issue which not noticeable on the screenshot with normal map on. Also, how big the object is? Cus I think if you apply a complete texture map + everything else ion the scene, the issue is not gonna be noticeable.

Regarding what you can do to fix smoothing group issue, you can try to convert to mesh + reset xform + check channel info for any possible weird stats + convert back to editable poly, most of the time it'll fix my problem. Oh and yeah the edit normal modifier, just apply it and collapse it down (even though you didn't notice any different) if you haven't done it before.

Quack!

Did you triangulate before you bake?
Are you using a synched work flow?
How big will this object be?
What file format did you use?

grimsonfart

Did not triangulate before bake

not sure what you mean by synched workflow

It's a rock, so i'm thinking 1-2 m tall and 3-4 m long

I use OBJ.

@Revel if you look in the midle of the picture with the normals, you can see seams which are not UV seems, most likely smoothing issue.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist so i might be overreacting but hey..

Quack!

While this doesn't look like a typical triangulation error, I would suggest you still rebake this.

Non-destructivley triangulate your model by adding a Turn To Poly modifier on top of your stack. Check the 'limit polygon size' box and set Max Size to 3.

This is now the object you want to bake and export to your game engine of choice.

Which engine is this in?

grimsonfart

CryEngine

And i triangulated by selecting all vertexes and connecting them. A method i red somewhere, but i can try your method.

Quack!

That method is fine, but it is destructive. So if you do that, and accidentally save, you are screwed. Just be careful.