Topology showing on bakes - need help!

Jarjarniks

Hey guys, I'm getting into 3D again and am once again having trouble with the basic shit.

My topology (triangulation) is showing on my normal map after a bake, and I don't understand why.



I am using averaged normals since normal split by uv shells is creating a lot of seams. I know I have bumped into this problem before, but I am totally unable to fix it.

Jarjarniks

Here is a shot of the topology.

Kanni3d

since you're using averaged normals, you have these two connections really tightly, which will cause your low poly to shade weird - which then shows up in your bake.

Try connecting it differently, or adding a loop here too alleviate the shading issue. Kinda strange that you have that similar issue in other parts of your model but no artifacting. Give it a try anyway.

worth noting that you can avoid this altogether by setting up and splitting hard edges properly. Seams are common and can be cleverly hidden by either geometry or textures.

Jarjarniks

Thank you so much for taking the time to take a look at my issue. I'll try to test a bit with smoothing groups by uv shells, and if that doesnt do it I'll try to alleviate some of the very long tris by cutting them up a bit more.

gnoop

 It's possible also to fix all such issues by editing vertex normals  only.    Face weighting, projecting from hi res or just  from a front perfectly  flat plane in this case  or just manually .   Sometimes  just edge rotating  could help.    I would try this first before adding redundant vertexes or edge loops.       Make a test polished metal material to preview such issues.   

 

You would have to get rid of those extra vertexes on a next lod anyway and will see a sudden shading switch if your shading depends on them.

For this tv I would project all  normals from a  last lod cube like shape mostly ( except those small buttons)