Smoothing Groups not working in Marmoset

guats

Hey there,
I'm having issues with Marmoset not respecting the smoothing groups from an FBX I made in Maya. If I open the exact same FBX (which has already been exported with smoothing groups ticked in the options) then in Maya they show as smooth and correct.

I have attached an image to illustrate this. These hard poly edges are showing even when the normal map and other textures are applied to the mesh. Are there import options somewhere in Marmoset I need to turn on? Is this a bug ssomeone else has run into?

Thanks

Arthaven

Hello @guats,

There isn't a setting to check in Toolbag to properly import FBX data. All features will be listed in the Maya/3D Package export options. I am seeing Hard and Soft Edges being respected on my end from Maya to Toolbag. Try a different FBX version to see if there are changes, my latest test was with 2018.1.1 and it looks great. If you can share your export settings or even your FBX file then I can take a look at this further (support@marmoset.co).

When baking, it is best to triangulate your mesh in your 3D package prior to export so that you are controlling the triangulation from your 3D package and not having the baking program choose the triangulation. Let me know if you need more help with this.

Thanks!

guats

Hey Arthaven!

Thanks so much for response. Okay so I understand the whole triangulate before normal baking and all that I can confirm this mesh is pre triangulated. By accident I ruled out the mesh being the issue. The exact same mesh retains it's smoothing groups in a fresh Marmoset scene but not in the scene I'm using to build my portfolio. That must mean it's a marmoset setting that is causing this. I applied a fresh standard material to the mesh in my portfolio scene and that didn't change anything either which means it must not be a material issue.

As you can see the scene on the right respects my smoothing groups. The left either creates it's own or just wipes them out I'm not sure?

guats

Okay I figured it out. A directional light with a low shape width setting causes hard poly edges to become visible.

Maybe this could be addressed in a future version of the program as it's not great, but I found a setting of 9 shape width still gives a reasonably good shadow that's not too fluffy.

Hopefully this will help someone else in the future.

guats

So after a bit more consideration I'm still finding terrible facet issues even with that last setting. So shadows on Directional lights seem to be unuseable.

EarthQuake

The root of the problem with this sort of things tends to be non-planar faces. While the faces are quads, the geometry has to be triangles to be rendered. If you think of it in terms of triangles, it will help to better visualize the shape of the mesh. Shadows are cast from the triangle geometry, so if you have non-planar faces, you have convex and concave shapes that will cause this sort of shadow artifact (in any renderer). The solution is generally to use more geometry (a smoother, more detailed mesh that more closely matches the high poly) and / or to ensure that the faces are planar.

Adjusting the width setting to blur the shadows can help to mask the problem, but it doesn't really address the cause, so it will be difficult to work around and fail in some cases. Unfortunately this is not something we can address in Toolbag itself, as it's (likely - I would have to take a look at the mesh to be 100% sure) due to the mesh geometry.

guats

Okay, but then showing off your low poly meshes say in Artstation, whilst using shadows in a Marmoset Viewer scene should be very difficult to get to look right?

guats

If you are trying to show off your mesh at a game ready resolution, then you just have to deal with this?