Zbrush Normal Mapping Issue

jec1183

Well my studio max won't allow me to render out normals properly. For some reason I can only use my blue channel. So I decided to use zbrush for my normal mapping. This allows me to use my red and green channels but there is a problem. When the texture is bumped out there are all these triangles making up the normal map so I get this very broken up piece of crap. I was wondering if anyone came across the same issue and had any idea what settings I may be missing that generally fix this issue?

Here are the files

MoP

Are you using ZMapper?

If not, get it here: http://206.145.80.239/zbc/showthread.php?t=031281
(you'll need to register and login to download the things, I think, but it's well worth it).

The manual document available there contains step-by-step tutorials for using it too. I've had no such problems when using ZMapper, so if you are already using it i dunno what it could be.

rooster

I ran into that very problem jec with a test mesh, the problem I believe was caused by not reseting xforms before exporting to obj, or at least that was what fixed it for me

edit: after looking again at your maps Im not sure it was the exact same problem. the problem I ran into seemed to result in every quad being split into tris, and one tri from each quad was mapped. then the other tri recieved the same texture space as the first. It looked very similar

jec1183

I downloaded zmapper. I will try it later. Thanks guys.

Valandar

I've had the exact same thing happen if I mirror an object... the original stays normal, but the mirror has the mapping problems you describe, rooster. In MAX it looks fine, but when exported... ugh...

Jhotun

Be sure to use 12 digits on the OBJ exportation, and Relative vertex numbers OFF.

Good luck

Valandar

That's my standard setting, Jhotun. If I export something that hasn't been mirrorred, it's all fine and dandy. But if I mirror it, then one of the mapping coords for each quad uses its opposite's coordinates, resulting in what you see above.

stoofoo

The obj exporter in max can have problems with scale bbeing too low. If you have reset your xforms beofore you export and it still causes this, try scaling it up significantly and resetting once again.

Also: if you are mirroring shit, select one half of the mirrorred bits, scale them down to a very small size and put them in open space in your uvs. it has a problem deciding which side takes priority, so decide for it.

Zmapper is a genius plugin. Sosososo good. Uuussseee it. Abuse it.