Painter - height / normal UV discrepancy

Sempoo

I have encountered a problem - when I have multiple different texel densities on UV islands, Painter incorrectly renders normals.
This is a test mesh in Blender - the rectangle has denser UV:



Here we have incorrect normals in Painter with a visible rectangle:



But when tessellation is on, height is rendered correctly, while normals are not:

All mesh maps are baked.

It seems to me that the quantity of decreased normal is directly proportional to the ratio between the two texel densities.

This is a substantial problem since height in Painter is ubiquitous.

Do you have any ideas on how to overcome it?

poopipe

its correct - it just isn't doing what you want.


normal map represents slope - there is no concept of height
slope is shallower where texel density is larger because the calculation is done in uv space (more distance between peaks and troughs)

you need to do one of these :
- not have different texel densities
- use a world space projection for the noise
- compensate for the discrepancy by modifying the height intensity in specific areas

Sempoo

I have found a solution:

1. export the texel density map from RizomUV

2. use it to mask areas with variable Td in Painter

3. use a filter Height Adjust

Now to properly set this filter I export a simple plane with all texel densities in my project: say I have 5 different Tds - then I divide this plane into 5 areas, unwrap them and give them those 5 Tds, then export to Painter.

In Painter I use the vector pen tool with pyramid alpha brush shape and paint lines to cross those Tds, then I set filter Height Adjust by eye to match heights. Now finally I simply use those numbers in the main project.