How to fix the "Bubbles" effect in my bump map

AirmanEpic

Hey, does anyone know what's going on here:


and how to fix it? 

I used Substance painter to paint, and C4D to render, but I have access to Zbrush as well if that would help. Thanks for the assistance guys

JedTheKrampus

You probably need either higher texture resolution or a UV map where those lines are horizontally and vertically aligned.

Neox

yeah it looks like some resolution and anti aliasing issue, could you show us your UVs?

AirmanEpic

Hey guys thanks for the help! The region is here: 


While the actual detail issue is here:

Would I look for anti-aliasing in Substance Painter or what? Is there a better way to get those panel lines in?

Neox

well there is only so much you can do with this mesh and unwrap. In general, as said before, the straighter your uvs the cleaner this will be. if a line goes horizontally or vertically it will be cleaner as if it goes diagonally. Thats almost independent of resolution and antialiasing. Of course the more blurred a line is, the less visible it will be, so you can try to crank up the sampling of the bake, this should definitely help to disguise the issue.

AirmanEpic

There was no bake, it was drawn manually with Substance Painter, if that helps

ZacD

It's a resolution issue, you could try to use a larger softer brush, or higher resolution textures, or try to align the UVs so that the panel lines are mostly vertical and horizontal on the UV. 

Do you notice the bubbling when viewing the entire mesh? It's possible you are too zoomed in and focusing an issue that no one would ever notice. 

AirmanEpic

Yeah it's only visible when really closely zoomed in, but still, I wish there were a way to make it look better. Doesn't even need to be with textures.

Neox

well you could use decals/floating geometry the same way it was done for star citizen

http://polycount.com/discussion/155894/decal-technique-from-star-citizen
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Decal