ID map keeps baking red
polycounter lvl 10
I keep running into an issue where whenever I try to bake an ID map from the Material Color, the result is just a solid red map.
As a test, I ran a bake on this mesh (Made in 3DS Max, exported as FBX) :
The result is a solid red map:
I know this used to work correctly a few years ago, but now it just feels completely broken now. I even checked this tutorial to make sure that I've been doing it properly and I don't see where I'm going wrong. I've been able to work around this issue for a while by using "Mesh ID / Polygroup", but that gives inconsistent results and it's been annoying to deal with. It's been happening to me across multiple projects and multiple computers and I feel like I'm losing my mind here. Can anyone please help me?
Replies
Try the vertex paint option though you have to do it again(the colors that is) that is what i do anyway. didnt see video sharing another option to try while you wait.edit added video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA9S2-vTDCY
Consider attaching your test fbx, so people can inspect it.
@iam717 That seems like another possible work around, though I'd really like to avoid it. I've used the Mat ID option for years just fine before I took a break from game dev and it's much less of a hassle than trying to mess around with vertex colors.
@Fabi_G I've attached the FBX.
I get the same issue with the fbx you uploaded - baked ID map in Painter is all red.
Once imported into blender and exported, it works in Painter.
Original fbx seems to work for baking ID map in Toolbag. This makes me think it's an issue with painter, too.
Can't test in Max, as I got no license. Does it work when assigning separate/individual materials instead of a multi-material? like so (screenshot from tutorial you posted):
@Fabi_G Yes, I've tried assigning the materials individually and the results are still the same: solid red map. It would make sense that the problem would still persist, as it just assigns mat IDs behind the scenes in order to create a multi-material. That is really odd that it works by exporting it to Blender. Like I said before, this used to work just fine when I was doing game art years ago. Feels like something in Substance Painter's code might have changed or something...
I see, that's frustrating :/ Would be interesting to read if developers have any ideas.
They always had sort of weird perception of what is convenient and important. In both Painter and Designer. Like they live in some other universe with its own game industry . Lots of features I never needed and lack of things I actually need every day and have to invent workarounds .
Using material ID as a polygon selection is so obvious thing. My whole geometry node workflow is based on temporary matID. I do all my polygon extrusion from matID selection in my modelling node flow. Yet I have to jump through hoops to bring it into Painter. Same for dropping in a channel packed spec texture and use individual channel as roughness. ( had to do special sbsar for that) And so on and on for every small minor thing.
Last year I figured out Blender itself could perfectly replace SPainter with it's node based shader pane . Same idea to generate and paint masks only to mix materials + superior edge wear mechanism by dot product of bevel node and normals . No weird anchors I lost track of in my own files , just simple and instantly clear node network. No baking itself necessary in lots of cases. Perfectly adjustable lighting to match your game.
All that said you still can bake ID map in Max just in few clicks.
Can you try using a Standard Material (not a Physical Material) ?
So using standard materials does seem to work! I guess that explains why it used to work for me, but then stopped.
Have you tried exporting an earlier fbx version? (the option is there in the exporter) the issue is that painter doesn't understand the newer material types on import and it wouldn't surprise me if the fbx export converted to a simple fallback material if you were to use eg. the 2017 version