Fastest exploded bake method?
polycounter lvl 10
I'm trying to figure out an efficient way of making an exploded mesh for baking in Xnormal. Zbrush, 3dcoat, 3dsMax workflow preferable but I'll take anything.
Scenario, very dense highpoly and uv'ed lowpoly assets intersecting in hundreds of spots spread over 50+subtools of varying subdivisions.
Methods I've tried-
-Importing, splitting and reordering the lowpoly into subtools in Zbrush that match the order of the highpoly subtools, using Xpose to explode the meshes, exporting and baking. This is ideal if it didn't take so long to reorder the subtools (1 hour atleast) if there was a way to order the subtools based on position this would be perfect.
-Dividing the subtools apart that would intersect in the bake and moving them in arbitrary directions until they aren't intersecting, repeat with the lowpoly.
This takes forever too and it's open to a lot of human error.
-Exporting out separate obj's for the parts that would intersect and baking multiple times in Xnormal and combining in Photoshop. This is probably the fastest way if you get used to it but not by much, and if you have to divide the mesh into more than 2 bakes it's probably not any faster.
Halp! I feel like my hair is turning grey whenever I do any of these methods.
Scenario, very dense highpoly and uv'ed lowpoly assets intersecting in hundreds of spots spread over 50+subtools of varying subdivisions.
Methods I've tried-
-Importing, splitting and reordering the lowpoly into subtools in Zbrush that match the order of the highpoly subtools, using Xpose to explode the meshes, exporting and baking. This is ideal if it didn't take so long to reorder the subtools (1 hour atleast) if there was a way to order the subtools based on position this would be perfect.
-Dividing the subtools apart that would intersect in the bake and moving them in arbitrary directions until they aren't intersecting, repeat with the lowpoly.
This takes forever too and it's open to a lot of human error.
-Exporting out separate obj's for the parts that would intersect and baking multiple times in Xnormal and combining in Photoshop. This is probably the fastest way if you get used to it but not by much, and if you have to divide the mesh into more than 2 bakes it's probably not any faster.
Halp! I feel like my hair is turning grey whenever I do any of these methods.
Replies
You can modify the low poly as you need with any operations (transforms, reset xforms, etc), and when you're done, transform to zero and get your final low in the original position.
But if the high poly is already done, I'd just decimate and import in max, then do the above steps, 3dsmax handles high res geometry pretty good. If some modifications are needed you could export just one subtool and align to the existing one.
There's also this Uncollider script for 3dsmax (does exactly what you think :poly124:), you could apply that on the detached by element low poly parts, but first you need to parent each high poly elements to the specific low polys so they move at the same time.
1- organize/merge your hi-poly sculpts so that each bake-able piece is a subtool.
2-Import your low poly Uv'd models and arrange them above their corresponding hi poly sculpt so you can easily merge them down into that same subtool. Be sure to polygroup each lopoly model before merging down to make your life easier in the next steps.
3-xpose your subtools!
4-Hide the low poly polygroups in each sub tool. Now you can export every subtool as your hi poly baking source with the sub tool master, or simply merge visible and export a merged hi rez if polycounts permit.
5-Invert visibilty in each subtool so that your only low poly models are visible. Merge visible and export these as your low poly model for baking.
6-inflate your low poly model in deformation to create your cage for baking. You might want to unhide your hi rez meshes and mask them off so you know your cage has full coverage over the hi rez.
Now you should be able to bake your big intricate hard surface model in one pass!
If I've forgotten anything or if you have any ideas to speed it up further let me know.
thanks
Some people report problems with zbrush exports not matching up, I know personally that when you save your zTool, zbrush renames your first subtool to whatever you named the saved tool, and sometimes objs don't maintain the proper names.
At the very least it's worth a shot and the Guys at Allegorithmic say they have more improvements to come with the bakers.
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