I don't want to be that guy but all of this has been discussed ad-nauseum in this bit of the forum.
The information is there, if everyone took 5 minutes to refer to the documentation or search the forum for it before posting you'd have less threads to search through.
I don't want to be that guy but all of this has been discussed ad-nauseum in this bit of the forum.
The information is there, if everyone took 5 minutes to refer to the documentation or search the forum for it before posting you'd have less threads to search through.
I know but I am not able to find the relevant information , perhaps you can tell me the right keywords to search?
The discontinuity of colors at the seams is merely caused by the fact that your UVs are not at the same angle near these seams. It will happen pretty much all the time, and that doesn't mean that the nmap is "wrong" in any way.
To understand this, do another bake with some of the islands rotated differently, and you'll see the colors change further. You just need to spend more time to get familiar with the way normalmaps work, as this is perfectly normal.
All that said ... there is no good justification for UV seams to be placed in the middle of a surface like that to begin with. That probably explains why this looks alien to you, as this is not a common/good practice since it will make any mismatch in texturing very apparent.
The discontinuity of colors at the seams is merely caused by the fact that your UVs are not at the same angle near these seams. It will happen pretty much all the time, and that doesn't mean that the nmap is "wrong" in any way.
To understand this, do another bake with some of the islands rotated differently, and you'll see the colors change further. You just need to spend more time to get familiar with the way normalmaps work, as this is perfectly normal.
All that said ... there is no good justification for UV seams to be placed in the middle of a surface like that to begin with. That probably explains why this looks alien to you, as this is not a common/good practice since it will make any mismatch in texturing very apparent.
I understand , but when you "have to" put seams on open surfaces, how you do otherwise ? If you can't hide them in creavesa and folds?
Well, this is like asking how long is a piece of string.
Lol ok so , in theory , if we are forced to put seams in a visible plain area is better to align the quads and borders even if in different uvmaps, but the problem then its if there are other seam zones.
NAIMA said: ...... if we are forced to put seams in a visible plain area is better to align the quads and borders even if in different uvmaps........
I don't really see what you're getting at? Your shaded model above looks fine; how the normal map looks as a flat texture matters very little, except when troubleshooting issues with shading.
If you can avoid putting seams in very visible areas, it's generally a good idea, but if you can't, there's not much to be done about it, just put them in logical places.
NAIMA said: ...... if we are forced to put seams in a visible plain area is better to align the quads and borders even if in different uvmaps........
I don't really see what you're getting at? Your shaded model above looks fine; how the normal map looks as a flat texture matters very little, except when troubleshooting issues with shading.
If you can avoid putting seams in very visible areas, it's generally a good idea, but if you can't, there's not much to be done about it, just put them in logical places.
Well the seams are visible in game even if not as pronounced as if I loaded normal maps as diffuse textures...
No, there is still some misunderstanding going on.
You just can't load a desaturated normalmap as part of your diffuse and expect a seamless result - doing so will *always* create difference in value across UV seams. That's why one just can't paint some "normalmap blue" to smooth out a shading seam - it doesn't work except in some very specific cases. And if you do "paint out" these seams in the normalmap ... then the shading itself will break. Can't win
To understand what going, again, do as follows :
Make an alternate version of your project, with one of the UV islands rotated, say, 45 degrees from the original. Bake the normalmap. Display the shaded result. It will still shade perfectly, even though the normalmap is of "different colors". That's because normalmaps are linked to the orientation of the UVs. So if you desaturate your normal map and attempt to use it as part of your diffuse, you will almost always get these faint seams - because different colors tend to have different values when desaturated.
If you need to use a prelit pass in your texturing stack, then you need to render and bake an actual lighting pass, by placing some lights in your scene and baking that from high to low. Usulally referred to as something like "complete map" or "lighting map".
If the seam is visible in game but not in substance painter and you are simply applying a flat value to basecolor then you most likely have a tangent basis mismatch.
There are a number of ways it can happen so you need to answer these questions. Which game engine? Are you using exactly the same mesh in painter and game engine? Was the mesh triangulated before baking? What are your import/export settings at every stage? Somebody will know the correct boxes to tick for your specific circumstances
Which game engine?---Secondlife Are you using exactly the same mesh in painter and game engine? ?---yes Was the mesh triangulated before baking? ?--- no What are your import/export settings at every stage? ?--- import fbx in substance no triangulation ,export smoothing
i did a quick google and found nothing concrete about normal map baking for second life except that in 2014 it did not import tangents from the mesh and they probably weren't going to change it. That means the mesh tangents are created at import and you need to do your bake in something that matches the engine.
you need to find out what people are using to successfully bake normals for second life and do your bakes there. or work out how to hide your seams
i did a quick google and found nothing concrete about normal map baking for second life except that in 2014 it did not import tangents from the mesh and they probably weren't going to change it. That means the mesh tangents are created at import and you need to do your bake in something that matches the engine.
you need to find out what people are using to successfully bake normals for second life and do your bakes there. or work out how to hide your seams
Although this may not be the cause of your issue, you should always triangulate before baking, and use that very same triangulated mesh export as your import for second life.
Replies
Does it look bad on the model?
Have you read the 200 other threads on normal baking artefacts ?
Also post a picture of the artefacts
And its probably because you haven't turned antialiasing on
How should I set padding?
The information is there, if everyone took 5 minutes to refer to the documentation or search the forum for it before posting you'd have less threads to search through.
I know but I am not able to find the relevant information , perhaps you can tell me the right keywords to search?
https://docs.substance3d.com/spdoc/padding-134643719.html
If it looks okay when rendered, then it's fine.
To understand this, do another bake with some of the islands rotated differently, and you'll see the colors change further. You just need to spend more time to get familiar with the way normalmaps work, as this is perfectly normal.
All that said ... there is no good justification for UV seams to be placed in the middle of a surface like that to begin with. That probably explains why this looks alien to you, as this is not a common/good practice since it will make any mismatch in texturing very apparent.
I understand , but when you "have to" put seams on open surfaces, how you do otherwise ? If you can't hide them in creavesa and folds?
Lol ok so , in theory , if we are forced to put seams in a visible plain area is better to align the quads and borders even if in different uvmaps, but the problem then its if there are other seam zones.
Your shaded model above looks fine; how the normal map looks as a flat texture matters very little, except when troubleshooting issues with shading.
If you can avoid putting seams in very visible areas, it's generally a good idea, but if you can't, there's not much to be done about it, just put them in logical places.
You just can't load a desaturated normalmap as part of your diffuse and expect a seamless result - doing so will *always* create difference in value across UV seams. That's why one just can't paint some "normalmap blue" to smooth out a shading seam - it doesn't work except in some very specific cases. And if you do "paint out" these seams in the normalmap ... then the shading itself will break. Can't win
To understand what going, again, do as follows :
Make an alternate version of your project, with one of the UV islands rotated, say, 45 degrees from the original. Bake the normalmap. Display the shaded result. It will still shade perfectly, even though the normalmap is of "different colors". That's because normalmaps are linked to the orientation of the UVs.
So if you desaturate your normal map and attempt to use it as part of your diffuse, you will almost always get these faint seams - because different colors tend to have different values when desaturated.
If you need to use a prelit pass in your texturing stack, then you need to render and bake an actual lighting pass, by placing some lights in your scene and baking that from high to low. Usulally referred to as something like "complete map" or "lighting map".
There are a number of ways it can happen so you need to answer these questions.
Which game engine?
Are you using exactly the same mesh in painter and game engine?
Was the mesh triangulated before baking?
What are your import/export settings at every stage?
Somebody will know the correct boxes to tick for your specific circumstances
Which game engine?---Secondlife
Are you using exactly the same mesh in painter and game engine? ?---yes
Was the mesh triangulated before baking? ?--- no
What are your import/export settings at every stage? ?--- import fbx in substance no triangulation ,export smoothing
you need to find out what people are using to successfully bake normals for second life and do your bakes there. or work out how to hide your seams
Thankyou , I will check .