Preferences for creating maps other than normal...

Steve Green

Hi,

Is there a consenus on how much of maps baked from high-res source should be direct from the render or done on the game model itself?

I can see the advantages of creating most of it from the high-res model (which means that the high-res model would require some mapping as well).

You could then mess around with the UVs on your game model without worrying about chopping up the diffuse texture, as it would just get baked out the same time as the normal map.

I've tended to use different diffuse passes (e.g. a skylight pass, procedurals etc. to get the majority of the final diffuse pass) but wondered how other people approach it.

Thanks,

- Steve

thomasp

well, i find baking quite difficult depending on the topology vs. uv layout. the results are often not sufficient and need clean-up imho. and dealing with uv's on higher res meshes is quite a pain, too.

therefore i try to stay away from baking whenever possible. often i would hand paint height maps to use for bump/normal-passes just to avoid fiddling too much on a model with insane resolution. seems much more efficient to me.

but i agree that baking out more than just your standard normal map can be handy at times, but i try to restrict it's use only to tackle very specific problem areas to avoid working too much on the highpoly itself.

KDR_11k

All I know is that Final Fantasy X seems to make heavy use of high-to-lowpoly baking and hell, the people like it.

Rick Stirling

I always bake out a lightmap as well - it adds no noticible time to the rendering, and its a great base for the textures, and useful as an overlay layer to fake some global illumination.

I use a lightdown setup for my lighting information.

Steve Green

Hi,

Generally with the high-res model I map it as a medium poly model, then just turbosmooth at baking time.

I think there a couple of reasons for me preferring to get as much from the original model.

1. Mapping which suits normal maps (like pelt mapping) I find a lot harder to paint flat in a 2D package due to distortion.

2. Using procedurals will sort out seams for free - and maps like Darksim's free Simbiont maps are pretty flexible.

Also it's handy to have a nicely textured high-res model

Cheers

Steve

Mojo2k

i on a regular basis bake out lights, normals and paralax, none of which do i add into my difuse texture, its all mixed in by the game engine from difrent textures . and if the uv layout that i'm using for difuse in incompatable, then i just make a new uv channel and do seperate mapping in it,