AWAITING CONFIRMATION: Defining Edges

PlateCaptain

Quick question for everyone:

What are the things NDO and DDO look at to determine where the edges of a model are? So that, for example, masks can start and end near the edges of the model for something like a light scratch mask?

I'm having trouble getting DDO to recognize the edges on a simple model I'm testing with, and I'm tried both a high-poly and low-poly mesh, along with the Color ID Map, Normal map (both tangent and object space), AO map, Curvature map, and Height map.

My model also has UV seams at the edges I'm trying to get the Dynamask editor to play with, which I assume would help. Is there anything else I need to be doing? Am I just not getting good enough normal maps baked if the edges aren't being identified properly?

I can attach pictures when I get home if that would help, but I'm hoping this is a general enough question.

PlateCaptain

One thing that just occurred to me that I can test out later: I have one section of my mesh (where it's most obvious that DDO isn't detecting an edge) where two different UV islands are sharing the same color on the Color ID map, and are also sharing an edge in the mesh. Could that be what's giving the suite trouble? Or should that not make a difference?

Martin7

Did you baked normals from highpoly to lowpoly?

PlateCaptain

Hi Martin,

Yes, both with XNormal's own cage, and with a custom cage made from the low poly model. Low poly was triangulated.

Martin7

Then it should work well. Did you input a curvature map from xnormal with your baked normals? If you input both, then DDO will only use the curvature map to create his curvature mask.

PlateCaptain

Ah, interesting. Yes, I had XNormal create all of my maps, except the Color ID. Maybe I'll try without the Curvature map and see what kind of difference that makes. Thanks for the suggestion.

Eric Ramberg

Hi!

"where two different UV islands are sharing the same color on the Color ID map, and are also sharing an edge in the mesh. Could that be what's giving the suite trouble? Or should that not make a difference?"

This should not pose any problem!

DDO detects edges through the normal map on low poly meshes and uses curvature on high poly meshes, so your first project set-up should work very well!

Would you mind testing one of the sample projects to see if they give desired results:
http://quixel.se/usermanual/quixelsuite/doku.php?id=ddo_samples

Thanks

PlateCaptain

Thanks, Eric. I'm actually out of town for the next week, but I can give that a try when I get back.