Foliage normals problems

Dragonar

Hi all ! I making a tree for my small diorama project and I used "sidenormalthief" to change the normal of my leafs.

The problem is when I import that on Marmoset2 I have a different result from 3dsMAX. So maybe some one can help/explain me .

1 - Result in 3DS max after the transfer
2 - The result of the normals
3 - Result in Marmoset

Eric Chadwick

Reset Xform before you use SlideNormalThief?

What export format are you using? Some formats destroy edited normals.

Try a quick test with a very simple model, like just a box. Bend a single normal and see if it loads properly into Marmoset.

Moving this from Tech Talk into the Marmoset section.

Dragonar

Hi all .
So I try what @Eric Chadwick proposed and it's not working .
I tested to resetXform , Collapse the edited normal but it's still don't work.
I saw the normals change on Marmoset but not like I want ^^.

So if some one can help me it will be really great !

PS : I used FBX format for the export.

1 - Max view with normals changed
2 - Edited normal ( simple test )
3 - Marmoset result.

Eric Chadwick

What happens if you use a cube primitive, collapse to Editable Poly, edit the normals, export to Marmoset? I think something is wrong with your model.

Dragonar

Hi @Eric Chadwick  thanks a lot for your support.

This is the result you asked for. On the left = Cube without edited normal .On right = Cube with edited normal. Left picture = Material I use on my scene Right picture = Default Material.

It's look it's working but I still don't understand why it's not working on my object.

Eric Chadwick

Ok. So the next step is to start with the default material and make 1 change at a time, getting closer to your scene material step by step, to try to find exactly which setting causes the trouble.

Dragonar

Hi @Eric Chadwick , after some test the problem coming for the "Cull back faces". Should I duplicate the faces instead of disable the cull back face ?
and thanks again for this epic support dude !

Eric Chadwick

Ah yes this would definitely cause trouble. When you tell an engine to NOT cull backfaces, you're telling it to automatically duplicate the triangles and flip their normals. This causes the flipped triangles to not have the custom normals you made.

In general it's a bad idea to use automatic backfaces. Because it's done for the whole model. But you typically only need backfaces for specific parts (foliage planes yes, but not for the branches or trunk). So it's better to duplicate them yourself, manually, then adjust the normals, then export.

Dragonar

@Eric Chadwick it's working perfectly now !! Thanks again for your support ! And if you want to see the project is this way !