Random ray misse
polycounter lvl 2
I've been having an issue with random ray misses appearing on my texture maps rendered with the renderer.
I've had instances where a render has come out perfect, then altered the cage slightly to correct a real ray miss error then suddenly these random pixel ray misses will start appearing all over the place and in areas the the cage hasn't even been altered at all. They are always 1x1 in size regardless of texture size although they're more likely to appear on very high resolution maps (2048x2048+).
I can't figure out what is causing it and nothing I have done seems to get rid of them. I've tried the Push function so the low and high aren't intersecting and tried different cage setups but it didn't solve it and just makes them move around to different places. The above example was from a simple box test with the high poly being a clone with smooth beveled edges, just about the most basic thing you can do, yet still they appeared on it.
If it's just a few then I just clean them up but sometimes they're everywhere and it just becomes a pain in the ass to clean them up. Some meshes just refuse to render out right and I have to render them several times and layer them to get a best as possible map. AA does not correct these errors but just blurs them out.
I've had instances where a render has come out perfect, then altered the cage slightly to correct a real ray miss error then suddenly these random pixel ray misses will start appearing all over the place and in areas the the cage hasn't even been altered at all. They are always 1x1 in size regardless of texture size although they're more likely to appear on very high resolution maps (2048x2048+).
I can't figure out what is causing it and nothing I have done seems to get rid of them. I've tried the Push function so the low and high aren't intersecting and tried different cage setups but it didn't solve it and just makes them move around to different places. The above example was from a simple box test with the high poly being a clone with smooth beveled edges, just about the most basic thing you can do, yet still they appeared on it.
If it's just a few then I just clean them up but sometimes they're everywhere and it just becomes a pain in the ass to clean them up. Some meshes just refuse to render out right and I have to render them several times and layer them to get a best as possible map. AA does not correct these errors but just blurs them out.
Replies
I would suggest exporting both high and low to Fbx, Reset Max, and import them. Should remove any Max file corruption.
These options can be found in the Projection Mapping section of RTT by clicking Options button, then clicking Setup in the Filtering options section.
I've tried Supersampling. It's just a form of AA so only results in blending the ray misses with the surrounding pixels turning them into a grainy mess. Before I just picked a friendly ray miss colour but I'm rendering an object space normal map this time round so no colour will blend well with it.
I've made an example scene of a piece of geometry that has the issue. Just click on the mesh "007" and render to texture. The scene was saved in max 2015.
I've resetXformed both objects, seems to fix artefacts too.
You have to actually uncheck disable all sampler in the global supersampling option.
Hammersley at 1 takes forever to render, you may lower it, or experiment with other samplers.
I'd say that you should use something else to bake your objects tho, xnormal or the new shiny Knald. Max is getting old.
Anyway, I finally found out what was causing it and a solution to it. For some reason some rays just don't hit the surface they're suppose to and go straight through hitting what's behind or usually just casting as a miss. I duplicated the geometry and made it slightly smaller with a Push modifier. Now when a ray misses the first mesh it hits the next one. When rendered like this it came out perfect. It could still miss both but very slim chance it would ever happen for the same ray.