Substance Normal Map Looks Incorrect in Maya

javcop

Hey guys, been spending hours researching and trying to fix this, but I'm hitting a wall. I've tried OpenGL and DirectX maps, flipping all the channels, hardening/averaging/softening the normals on the model, rendering in Arnold (looks similar) in the aiStandardSuface and lambert shaders (2dbump and aiNormalmap nodes), and various other things I can't remember. Any help would be hugely appreciated

Maya scene - https://mega.nz/#!kI4TnKqD!xp1yUEh_IyVaAYehjbO4_T4A4hx-yZrO2IWhedJWIwk

rikyu99

2 possibilities:

Set Color Profile of texture file to RAW (bump and normal maps need to be set to RAW as of maya 2016 or 2017)

Set the bump node to Tangent Space

m4dcow

Might be different triangulation between the apps... try triangulating the mesh when you export to substance and re bake to see if it matches up. You could also triangulate in maya and then flip the edges of those quads that have the dark spots to quickly diagnose... but damn you are making the normal map do a lot of work having no hard edge and seam in that location.

javcop

Thanks for the responses guys

@rikyu99Sorry, forgot to mention I do have it set to Raw and Tangent space.

@m4dcow You were spot-on about the triangulation. It's almost perfect now except for the area highlighted below. Yeah, you're right I could probably make due with a seam, but since it looked so nice in Substance, I was hoping it would translate over to Maya as well. I'll definitely go that route if this doesn't work out. Do you mind elaborating on what you mean by flipping edges? 

m4dcow

javcop said:

Do you mind elaborating on what you mean by flipping edges? 

Had you not re baked, while in Maya, you could have triangulated the mesh and then selected the edge dividing an offending quad and flipped it using the flip triangle edge command. If it ends up looking better it's a quick way diagnose whether it was a triangulation issue.

If you take your mesh that no longer has those black spots and flip a triangle edge, you will find the black spots show up again.

As for the issue you are having now, I'm not sure if Maya and Substance's tangent basis completely sync up. It is why I would typically recommend a seam on such a hard transition, but another trick would be to use face weighted normals for the sides so that projection isn't so distorted.

m4dcow

Here is a quick image showing the the comparison between face weighted normals and and regular smoothed normals (Although it should probably be called something like planar weighted normals?)

I will say that doing this can sometimes require manual tweaking and isn't worth it if you are trying to get things through the pipeline quickly, but it is good to know.

javcop

Screwed around with weighted faces and more normal shenanigans, but the seam looks to be the best way. Thanks for all the advice, you've definitely saved me a ton of time and money that I would've spent on medical bills from bashing my head against a wall

For closure's sake: