I thought I would post this here as well, b/c it seems that a lot of people are having problems with the xNormal and Maya pipeline. If this still doesn't help, I can cap a video later:)
I almost have the low poly version of my gun done. Along the way I experienced some problems with baking maps from xNormal. This was a problem that I've never seen before... After a lot of trail and error and reading countless post on different forums I finally solved the problem. It seems that most of the information was either old or incomplete.
The problem: Getting seamless maps from xNormal to Maya.
As you can see, there is a very noticeable seam from the xNormal bake. To get rid of this you have to create and use a cage instead of ray distance.
Steps to do this from Maya.
1. take your low poly mesh. (no n-gons)
3. indicate hard and soft edges
2. UV it.
3. freeze it and delete history
4 export as OBJ with the following settings.
groups on
point groups on
materials off
smoothing on
normals on
5. duplicate that mesh.
6. with that new mesh selected go to lighting/ shading -- then transfer maps
7. change mesh to envelope and adjust side. (note: if this doesn't change size and color, change size to something like 1 and close the window... repeat 5-7 and this time it should change size)
Note: the envelope mesh must be an exact duplicate of your low and be large enough to in case your high poly mesh completely.
8. Freeze it and delete histoy
9. export it with the same settings as your low poly model.
10. open xNormal and import high poly model with default settings (make sure ignore per vertex color is checked).
11. Add low poly mesh with the following settings
use exported normals
batch protection
12. right click and browse for cage ( this your envelope mesh)
13. make sure use cage is checked
14. set map size and edge padding to somewhere around 6
15. generate maps!
There still seems to be some small artifacts that appear in the maps. If you also run a ray distance bake; you can swap out those area in seconds.
thats an awfull lot of steps for baking a simple normal map. Why not use maya native normal map baker ? it is syncronized with its own engine so the normal would show pretty well , the only problem would be ao , but that is easily baked in xnormal.
other formats work better. I tried OBJ and it works but is it possible to export LW-->OBJ with smoothing treshold-->vertex normal? I only get oversmoothed objects.
I am having a problem baking with xNormal atm. To the left I have the bake from 3ds max, which turned out fine (ignore the weird bumpy edges, it was caused by a bad highpoly that i fixed later). But on the right is the xNormal bake which (I think) is projecting the geometry all wrong ...
And the models + UV
The UV's are not inverted, nor is it overlapping (with the exception of one irrelevant area)
All models I have baked with this before turned out fine. Thanks for any help, I do not have any clues on what is causing this.
@sondrebot, how were you baking in max? If you were using cage in max, try using cage in xNormal?
I tried that to, but it looked worse... Gonna try that again tho, since the cage might have been wrong..
Btw... If you look closely on the xNormal bake you can see the valve on the bottom of the large uv-island in the middle top. Dont know why that is happening...
Btw... If you look closely on the xNormal bake you can see the valve on the bottom of the large uv-island in the middle top. Dont know why that is happening...
Yeah that's weird. I'm no expert at baking either. Have you tried opening the low and High in xNormals 3d previewer to see if they line up correctly? You don't get any warning messages about mesh scale when you go to bake?
As a side note, the edges on your high are way too tight for baking, unless you've already changed that since that image. Cylinder parts aren't high poly either. And having the cylinder caps as ngons won't work in xNormal, although you probably already figured that out by now
Yeah that's weird. I'm no expert at baking either. Have you tried opening the low and High in xNormals 3d previewer to see if they line up correctly? You don't get any warning messages about mesh scale when you go to bake?
As a side note, the edges on your high are way too tight for baking, unless you've already changed that since that image. Cylinder parts aren't high poly either. And having the cylinder caps as ngons won't work in xNormal, although you probably already figured that out by now
Yeah, I know about ngons... The edge tightness I didn't know tho... Ok, so I made a new low poly (and new uv-set (no overlap or inverted)) and a new high poly... And still I get the same problems.. On a different computer!
So it's definitely something wrong with my model, but I have no idea whats causing it -.-.... I know it's a little much to ask, but if I upload the models, could you/someone take a look at them?
Here is at least what I did:
- Impoted highpoly obj file.
- Impoted lowpoly obj file.
- Used ray distance calculator (about 180 secounds)
- Copied the results
- Baked normals with these settings:
What a glorious day! My mirrored seams were fixed by using a lightmap in udk. However the dynamically lit model still has seams but has much better shading, noted. I had to crank the lightmap up to 1024 to make it somewhat resemble the quality of the dynamic lit one. NO seams on mirrored uvs at all in udk! what a miracle.
@ sondre, I suggest a cage exported from max, and an exploded bake.
I was wondering how do you bake out normal map using "XNORMAL" if you have hd geometry in zbrush ??????
I cannot export hd geometry from zbrush as my high poly mesh. So my high poly exported mesh only have the highest subdivision level but not the HD subdivisions.
while baking normal map in zbrush it gives hd geometry details in normal map.
Hello. I'm trying to bake AO from my hi-poly model to the low poly one using xnormal. It's a girl wearing top. I'd like to achieve the effect of shadow casted by the top on the body. But as a result I'm getting the projection of a top itself on the body.
While baking normals I was manage to avoid this by exploding the mesh. But for baking AO i need all the parts to be in their places. Otherwise no shadows would be casted from details to the body. What are my options? I hope the text above is possible to read and understand. Thank you for the attention. )
I am having a problem baking with xNormal atm. To the left I have the bake from 3ds max, which turned out fine (ignore the weird bumpy edges, it was caused by a bad highpoly that i fixed later). But on the right is the xNormal bake which (I think) is projecting the geometry all wrong ...
And the models + UV
The UV's are not inverted, nor is it overlapping (with the exception of one irrelevant area)
All models I have baked with this before turned out fine. Thanks for any help, I do not have any clues on what is causing this.
Idk if you figured it out but you might want to do an exploded bake so the parts are not intersecting like that. Also that waviness is probably caused by the low poly not having enough polygons to match the high, as well as your control cage.
I have 2 parameters which are never read because whatever value I use xNormal will not read them and use the default one. It's "PRTJitter" and "PRTNormalize". If I enable the PRT option and create the xml from xNormal I don't have any problem and the setting is correctly loaded if I reload the xml file generated from xN. But from my own xml, these settings are passed.
I don't understand why, there is no misspelling at all...
[EDIT]
Ok, I fixed it, but it's not logical at all... unless xNormal load the settings in a specific oder ?
I fixed it with this order :
So, I'm back. I have an other question now. I'm backing some normal maps from my High Poly mesh into a low poly using the "Bake Base Texture".
I'm wondering if this baking option is correct for normal maps ? For AO and Diffuse it's ok, but for normal maps in Tangent Space is it ?
The maps is reprojected to the object UV which mean the normal map axis are not respected isn't it ? I tried to see visually if the lighting is wrong or not with some custom test meshes but I'm still not sure if it's a correct re-projection or not.
There's a checkbox for that right beside the "Base texture to bake" field. Turn on "Base texture is a tangent-space normal map" and it will account for all of that. This is on the high poly tab.
Hey guys. Another guy with an issue about making CAGES!
So like other I get this message when I try to bake with my cage
"Invalid function parameter 'cage' : The cage mesh Default inside \Documents\cage.obj has at face 0 a vertex index that doesn't match the correspondent one for mesh Default inside the file \Documents\model.obj"
I've tried going into the plugin manager>triangulators>default triangulator>configure>shortest diagonal first thing but it didn't work. I also tried unchecking "invert diagonal" but still no luck.
I've also tried triangulating my cage within blender before exporting it. And I've tried triangulating the low poly object as well.
Would anybody know the problem? I need help urgently
EDIT: Seems I got it working by exporting only the body. It was split into two parts which I joined. The body and the pauldron/gauntlet. It's a work around that isn't too tedious for now
There's a checkbox for that right beside the "Base texture to bake" field. Turn on "Base texture is a tangent-space normal map" and it will account for all of that. This is on the high poly tab.
Hello everyone I am new to this forum and am now start using xNormal, I'm having some problems and needed some help.
I downloaded the latest version and when I enter the 3D viewer the mouse cursor gets stuck inside the 3D viewer window and takes the form of two arrows, I can not do anything on the computer.
I've tried changing the Open GL and Direct 3D and is always the same.
Can anyone help.
@Froyok, I'll revise my XML settings's reading code. thx for pointing that.
So, I'm back. I have an other question now. I'm backing some normal maps from my High Poly mesh into a low poly using the "Bake Base Texture".
I'm wondering if this baking option is correct for normal maps ? For AO and Diffuse it's ok, but for normal maps in Tangent Space is it ?
It's ok but, as Warren mentioned, you must specify the base texture is a tangent-space one. There's a checkbox in the HP slot for that : "base texture is tangent-space normal map" or somewhat similar.
@DonNatale,if you add/remove any vertex/face whe external cage won't fit the LP's topology and the error dialog will pop. Caution if you export the OBJs from ZBrush: disable the "Merge vertices" option in the OBJ exporter or the vertex order could be altered.
joker666, ALT + Enter will re-capture the mouse pointer.
jogshy, have you considered adding a feature to generate an averaged welded caged directly in xNormal? Having an option like this in the Low def along with an offset value would be incredibly useful.
Already present, more or less :poly136:
If you check in the "use cage" but the HP mesh has no cage assigned then xN should compute an averaged welded cage.
The SBM mesh exporter for 3dsmax can export the Projection's modifier cage which is averaged.
If you want to average an existing cage then enter the 3d viewer, show cage->edit cage->select some vertices->press the weld/unweld button.
I am having a problem baking with xNormal atm. To the left I have the bake from 3ds max, which turned out fine (ignore the weird bumpy edges, it was caused by a bad highpoly that i fixed later). But on the right is the xNormal bake which (I think) is projecting the geometry all wrong ...
The UV's are not inverted, nor is it overlapping (with the exception of one irrelevant area)
All models I have baked with this before turned out fine. Thanks for any help, I do not have any clues on what is causing this.
Your issue may be way over my head, but did you try lowering the "Max Ray Distance" setting? You have to scroll over to change both frontal and back.
If I had to give feedback though, I'd say ditch the custom UI look and give it a standard windows skin that is resizable. A lot of options, such as Use Cage and Ignore vertex color etc you have to scroll back and forth to get to, or scrolling through the bake map types. Let me use my 1920x1200 real estate :P
Or if you want to keep the customized look, just make the main window resizable.
If I had to give feedback though, I'd say ditch the custom UI look and give it a standard windows skin that is resizable. A lot of options, such as Use Cage and Ignore vertex color etc you have to scroll back and forth to get to, or scrolling through the bake map types. Let me use my 1920x1200 real estate :P
Or if you want to keep the customized look, just make the main window resizable.
When rendering AO in xNormal is it possible to set a maximum distance the rays can travel ? At the moment the angle is the only thing that makes a noticable difference. I looked at the tutorial on the xNormal site already, but that seems to be for an older version.
At the moment it looks like an infinite fall-off but I need a tighter AO, so I want to limit the distance the rays travel.
The only way to stop the rays is to use a blocker, otherwise it's infinite only.
Create just simple mesh (like planes) where you want to block the rayon.
In xNormal, in the low-poly list, right click on you mesh > load blocker file.
hi guys
need help here, im running some baking test using this basic geometry and i always end weird nrml map.
from left to right: -the low poly model
-the high segmented model to use in Zbrush
-the low and high uv (though i know its not important to unwrap the high poly map if it will be used in Xnormal)
-the model in Zbrush after adding some details to test
-the normal map i got from Xnormal and zbrush though the zbrush nrml is not perfect but it looks way better than the one igot from Xnormal
i tried to get back to xnormal after a after a long break and i'm encountering an error.
when i try to generate maps xnormal reads the hipoly file, starts calculating geometry and then "pls, set any hi poly mesh visible" message pops up every time.
there's only one hi poly mesh and it is set to visible. i googled that error and found nothing.
hi poly and low poly were exported as obj from the same max 2010 file. hi poly originally comes from zbrush though. any ideas?
check out your normals or any hidden geometry, try a new empty scene inside 3ds max, if the problem persists try to install different version of Xnormal.
Hi, i have a problem with xNromal maybe u guys know how to fix it. My small geometry details are close to character main body, and they are baked in normal map :C Here is the picture:
Hi, i have a problem with xNromal maybe u guys know how to fix it. My small geometry details are close to character main body, and they are baked in normal map :C Here is the picture:
If it is a separate object, you would explode your mesh to bake the normal map (exploding means to move the separate parts of your model away from eachother so they don't intersect).
i've encountered the following error in all my recent bakes (every one since I discovered it):
every map (AO, normal and several others) rendered out in xnormal has a strange one pixel border on the top and right side like this:
(what you see here is the top right corner of my normal map in high magnification on a grey background.)
the map was generated with two highpoly models and one single plane as the lowpoly hovering above the highpoly meshes with its normal pointing upwards.
the top and right line of pixels are apparently not used. they become 127,127,127 in normal maps or background color in AO bakes.
scaling the low poly mesh does not influence the error.
does anyone know why this happens and how i can make xnormal use the whole map?
thx for the reply.
one of my two hp meshes is a plane, yes, so edge padding itself is not a problem here. i get edge padding on the 1px border though, if i switch it on!
moving the lp underneath the hp is basically the same as inverting the lp plane's normal so it points directly at and not away from the lp, right? i tried that and had the same error, this 1px border.
any other suggestions?
no stromberg, that is not the problem either... i just checked. besides, displaying the map as an image on my lp plane shows the border as well.
btw: the border also exists in the alpha channel of the normal map as black pixels.
i've encountered the following error in all my recent bakes (every one since I discovered it):
every map (AO, normal and several others) rendered out in xnormal has a strange one pixel border on the top and right side like this:
You suddenly discovered my top-right rasterizer's filling convention :poly121:
When you render two adjacent triangles with DX9, the top-left borders of each triangle aren't rendered to avoid the shared edge to be drawn two times.
That gray border appears because, probably, your triangles's top-right edges are ending exactly at your [x,1]/[1,y] UVs, hitting the texture's limits, so they won't be rendered.
Just keep some space empty near the texture's borders ( which is also good for the edge padding/dilation filter and to avoid problems with mipmapping :poly121: ).
Also, is a very good idea to use "pixel snap to center" in your 3d modelling app / UV unwrapper ( that's how is called in 3dsmax, pixel snap to center... no idea what's called in Maya ). That will make sure all your UVs are placed at texel's center, improving the compatibility and alignment with all the renderers.
hey jogshy!
thanks for replying! i have to admit that i dont fully understand that background information about the rendering.
however, there are two things that you might want to consider:
the grey border is not in the normal map. it is only the background that the normal map is displayed on in the app.
second: this normal map is supposed to be used as a tiling detail normal map. that means, i want the whole image to be covered with the normal map information.
also have a look at the thread, i opened: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1726038#post1726038
i actually tried to play around with the 'snap to pixel' option that blender, my modelling app of choice, gives me. it didn't help.
what did help, though, was to extend the unwrap beyond the 1,1 borders by one pixel on the top and right edges. in that case the whole image is used... i haven't found out yet if that is simply a dirty workaround or if the problem has to do with unwrapping in blender and thus my solution was "correct".
ok before jogshy edited his post, he asked me to show the UV layout... as i have already prepared the image, i am posting it even if jogshy might not be that interested anymore
notice the gap between the border of the image and the borders of the UVs on the top and right side. with the map resolution i used here, it is exactly one pixel wide. all UV verts are snapped to pixel edges as described above.
baking worked fine with this UV layout.
This might have been asked in past and probably was so i apologize in advance. I am trying to bake a normal map for a very large prop the poly count of the high res obj that i am trying to bake is 14 million. When i try to run the bake i get an error in xnormal saying that the obj is void or doesn't exist. I am able to open the file with Maya so it does exist and it doesn't seem to have any issues. Any ideas how to avoid this issue? Am I trying to bake something past the allowed poly count size? Is there a fix or a work around for this case?
Anyone mind telling me if XNormal is having cage problems in the latest version? I was baking a character yesterday, and setup my cage to envelope my HP, but for some reason, my bakes keep on coming out with 'holes' or 'backface' bakes for no reason at all.
When I used the Ray, even at small value, I don't get a fraction of the holes I'm getting with my cage, even when they're shorter then the cage.
To top it all off, these 'holes' are only occurring in my Normal, AO and Thickness map, all very important ones, yet stuff like Cavity, Convex, Vertex Colors, etc don't display these symptoms.
I reset everything on my LP, put Edit Mesh, and did a simple 'Push' of my cage, in Max 2009, SBM format.
having problems using external cage files with XN lately.
what i have been doing is export all 3 meshes, my highpoly, lowpoly, and cage out as seprate sbm files from maya, and have been making my cage by duplicating the lowpoly, and pushing all verts out on there normals slightly. and i get this error everytime i try and bake
EDIT: this seems to be a problem with the sbm format, if i export as OBJ or even FBX i don't have this issue.
im on maya 2012, and using the sbm exporter that comes with XN. with Export Normal, Export UV's, Export tangent basis, and Export vertex colours checked off when i do my exports.
Replies
I almost have the low poly version of my gun done. Along the way I experienced some problems with baking maps from xNormal. This was a problem that I've never seen before... After a lot of trail and error and reading countless post on different forums I finally solved the problem. It seems that most of the information was either old or incomplete.
The problem: Getting seamless maps from xNormal to Maya.
As you can see, there is a very noticeable seam from the xNormal bake. To get rid of this you have to create and use a cage instead of ray distance.
Steps to do this from Maya.
1. take your low poly mesh. (no n-gons)
3. indicate hard and soft edges
2. UV it.
3. freeze it and delete history
4 export as OBJ with the following settings.
- groups on
- point groups on
- materials off
- smoothing on
- normals on
5. duplicate that mesh.6. with that new mesh selected go to lighting/ shading -- then transfer maps
7. change mesh to envelope and adjust side. (note: if this doesn't change size and color, change size to something like 1 and close the window... repeat 5-7 and this time it should change size)
Note: the envelope mesh must be an exact duplicate of your low and be large enough to in case your high poly mesh completely.
8. Freeze it and delete histoy
9. export it with the same settings as your low poly model.
10. open xNormal and import high poly model with default settings (make sure ignore per vertex color is checked).
11. Add low poly mesh with the following settings
- use exported normals
- batch protection
12. right click and browse for cage ( this your envelope mesh)13. make sure use cage is checked
14. set map size and edge padding to somewhere around 6
15. generate maps!
There still seems to be some small artifacts that appear in the maps. If you also run a ray distance bake; you can swap out those area in seconds.
other formats work better. I tried OBJ and it works but is it possible to export LW-->OBJ with smoothing treshold-->vertex normal? I only get oversmoothed objects.
And the models + UV
The UV's are not inverted, nor is it overlapping (with the exception of one irrelevant area)
All models I have baked with this before turned out fine. Thanks for any help, I do not have any clues on what is causing this.
The new udk and fbx updates supposidly fixed this issue?
I tried that to, but it looked worse... Gonna try that again tho, since the cage might have been wrong..
Btw... If you look closely on the xNormal bake you can see the valve on the bottom of the large uv-island in the middle top. Dont know why that is happening...
As a side note, the edges on your high are way too tight for baking, unless you've already changed that since that image. Cylinder parts aren't high poly either. And having the cylinder caps as ngons won't work in xNormal, although you probably already figured that out by now
@Nautilus, read http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap#Mirroring ?
Yeah, I know about ngons... The edge tightness I didn't know tho... Ok, so I made a new low poly (and new uv-set (no overlap or inverted)) and a new high poly... And still I get the same problems.. On a different computer!
So it's definitely something wrong with my model, but I have no idea whats causing it -.-.... I know it's a little much to ask, but if I upload the models, could you/someone take a look at them?
Here is at least what I did:
- Impoted highpoly obj file.
- Impoted lowpoly obj file.
- Used ray distance calculator (about 180 secounds)
- Copied the results
- Baked normals with these settings:
- 2048 x 2048
- Edge padding: 4 pixels
- Closest hit
- Discard back-faces hits
- Default bucket render x64
- Anti-aliasing 4x
- Bucket size 32
Am I missing something here?
@ sondre, I suggest a cage exported from max, and an exploded bake.
I cannot export hd geometry from zbrush as my high poly mesh. So my high poly exported mesh only have the highest subdivision level but not the HD subdivisions.
while baking normal map in zbrush it gives hd geometry details in normal map.
so what is the work around for this problem
Its been awhile but could you bake out the HD as a displacement or bump map and then use that in X?
While baking normals I was manage to avoid this by exploding the mesh. But for baking AO i need all the parts to be in their places. Otherwise no shadows would be casted from details to the body. What are my options? I hope the text above is possible to read and understand. Thank you for the attention. )
Idk if you figured it out but you might want to do an exploded bake so the parts are not intersecting like that. Also that waviness is probably caused by the low poly not having enough polygons to match the high, as well as your control cage.
Here is my file :
<Settings> <HighPolyModel DefaultMeshScale="1.000000"> <Mesh Visible="true" Scale="1" IgnorePerVertexColor="true" AverageNormals="UseExportedNormals" BaseTexIsTSNM="false" File="D:/DESKTOP/mesh_hp.obj" /> </HighPolyModel> <LowPolyModel DefaultMeshScale="1.000000"> <Mesh Visible="true" File="D:/DESKTOP/mesh_lp.obj" AverageNormals="UseExportedNormals" MaxRayDistanceFront="0.5" MaxRayDistanceBack="0.5" UseCage="false" NormapMapType="Tangent-space" UsePerVertexColors="true" UseFresnel="false" FresnelRefractiveIndex="1.330000" ReflectHDRMult="1.000000" VectorDisplacementTS="false" VDMSwizzleX="X+" VDMSwizzleY="Y+" VDMSwizzleZ="Z+" BatchProtect="false" CastShadows="true" ReceiveShadows="true" BackfaceCull="true" NMSwizzleX="X+" NMSwizzleY="Y+" NMSwizzleZ="Z+" HighpolyNormalsOverrideTangentSpace="true" TransparencyMode="None" AlphaTestValue="127" Matte="false" Scale="1" MatchUVs="false" UOffset="false" VOffset="false" BlockersFile="" /> </LowPolyModel> <GenerateMaps GenNormals="false" Width="512" Height="512" EdgePadding="16" BucketSize="32" TangentSpace="true" ClosestIfFails="true" DiscardRayBackFacesHits="true" File="D:/DESKTOP/mesh_lp.tga" SwizzleX="X+" SwizzleY="Y+" SwizzleZ="Z+" AA="1" GenAO="false" AORaysPerSample="128" AODistribution="Uniform" AOConeAngle="179.500000" AOBias="0.000010" AOAllowPureOccluded="false" AOLimitRayDistance="false" AOAttenConstant="1.000000" AOAttenLinear="0.000000" AOAttenCuadratic="0.000000" AOJitter="false" AOIgnoreBackfaceHits="false" GenHeights="false" HeightTonemap="Interactive" HeightMinVal="-10.000000" HeightMaxVal="10.000000" BakeHighpolyVCols="false" GenCavity="false" CavityRaysPerSample="128" CavityJitter="false" CavitySearchRadius="0.500000" CavityContrast="1.250000" CavitySteps="4" GenCurv="false" CurvRaysPerSample="128" CurvBias="0.000100" CurvConeAngle="162.000000" CurvJitter="false" CurvSearchDistance="1.000000" CurvTonemap="3Col" CurvDistribution="Cosine" CurvAlgorithm="Average" CurvSmoothing="true" GenPRT="true" PRTRaysPerSample="128" PRTConeAngle="179.5" PRTBias="0.08" PRTLimitRayDistance="true" PRTJitter="true" PRTNormalize="true" PRTThreshold="0.005" GenProximity="false" GenDirections="false" > <NMBackgroundColor R="127" G="127" B="255"/> <BakeHighpolyBaseTextureNoTexCol R="255" G="0" B="0"/> <BakeHighpolyBaseTextureBackgroundColor R="0" G="0" B="0"/> <HMBackgroundColor R="0" G="0" B="0"/> <AOOccludedColor R="0" G="0" B="0"/> <AOUnoccludedColor R="255" G="255" B="255"/> <AOBackgroundColor R="255" G="255" B="255"/> <PRTBackgroundColor R="255" G="0" B="0"/> <CavityBackgroundColor R="255" G="255" B="255"/> <BakeHighpolyVColsBackgroundCol R="0" G="0" B="0"/> <CurvBackgroundColor R="0" G="0" B="0"/> </GenerateMaps> <Detail Scale="0.500000" Method="4Samples"/> <Viewer3D ShowGrid="true" ShowWireframe="true" ShowTangents="true" ShowNormals="false" ShowBlockers="false" > <BackgroundColor R="0" G="0" B="0"/> <GridColor R="180" G="180" B="220"/> <CageColor R="76" G="76" B="76"/> </Viewer3D> </Settings>I have 2 parameters which are never read because whatever value I use xNormal will not read them and use the default one. It's "PRTJitter" and "PRTNormalize". If I enable the PRT option and create the xml from xNormal I don't have any problem and the setting is correctly loaded if I reload the xml file generated from xN. But from my own xml, these settings are passed.I don't understand why, there is no misspelling at all...
[EDIT]
Ok, I fixed it, but it's not logical at all... unless xNormal load the settings in a specific oder ?
I fixed it with this order :
[EDIT2] Derp, If I remove the Bent settings it doesn't work anymore. I guess I must add all the settings...
I'm wondering if this baking option is correct for normal maps ? For AO and Diffuse it's ok, but for normal maps in Tangent Space is it ?
The maps is reprojected to the object UV which mean the normal map axis are not respected isn't it ? I tried to see visually if the lighting is wrong or not with some custom test meshes but I'm still not sure if it's a correct re-projection or not.
So like other I get this message when I try to bake with my cage
"Invalid function parameter 'cage' : The cage mesh Default inside
I've tried going into the plugin manager>triangulators>default triangulator>configure>shortest diagonal first thing but it didn't work. I also tried unchecking "invert diagonal" but still no luck.
I've also tried triangulating my cage within blender before exporting it. And I've tried triangulating the low poly object as well.
Would anybody know the problem? I need help urgently
EDIT: Seems I got it working by exporting only the body. It was split into two parts which I joined. The body and the pauldron/gauntlet. It's a work around that isn't too tedious for now
I missed that !
I downloaded the latest version and when I enter the 3D viewer the mouse cursor gets stuck inside the 3D viewer window and takes the form of two arrows, I can not do anything on the computer.
I've tried changing the Open GL and Direct 3D and is always the same.
Can anyone help.
Sorry about my bad English.
You might try with another mesh format like SBM or FBX,
Can you send me your mesh so I can debug it in depth to fix the LWO mesh importer, pls?
@silentbrains, exploding your model might help you to render the AO properly.
@sondrebot, try using a cage.
@Froyok, I'll revise my XML settings's reading code. thx for pointing that.
It's ok but, as Warren mentioned, you must specify the base texture is a tangent-space one. There's a checkbox in the HP slot for that : "base texture is tangent-space normal map" or somewhat similar.
@DonNatale, if you add/remove any vertex/face whe external cage won't fit the LP's topology and the error dialog will pop. Caution if you export the OBJs from ZBrush: disable the "Merge vertices" option in the OBJ exporter or the vertex order could be altered.
joker666, ALT + Enter will re-capture the mouse pointer.
Already present, more or less :poly136:
If you check in the "use cage" but the HP mesh has no cage assigned then xN should compute an averaged welded cage.
The SBM mesh exporter for 3dsmax can export the Projection's modifier cage which is averaged.
If you want to average an existing cage then enter the 3d viewer, show cage->edit cage->select some vertices->press the weld/unweld button.
Your issue may be way over my head, but did you try lowering the "Max Ray Distance" setting? You have to scroll over to change both frontal and back.
If I had to give feedback though, I'd say ditch the custom UI look and give it a standard windows skin that is resizable. A lot of options, such as Use Cage and Ignore vertex color etc you have to scroll back and forth to get to, or scrolling through the bake map types. Let me use my 1920x1200 real estate :P
Or if you want to keep the customized look, just make the main window resizable.
As far as i remember that´s planned for Xn 4.0
Ur pointer on cages and the tutorial on how to do them in xnormal, just saved me from hours and hours of frustration.
God Bless
At the moment it looks like an infinite fall-off but I need a tighter AO, so I want to limit the distance the rays travel.
Create just simple mesh (like planes) where you want to block the rayon.
In xNormal, in the low-poly list, right click on you mesh > load blocker file.
need help here, im running some baking test using this basic geometry and i always end weird nrml map.
from left to right: -the low poly model
-the high segmented model to use in Zbrush
-the low and high uv (though i know its not important to unwrap the high poly map if it will be used in Xnormal)
-the model in Zbrush after adding some details to test
-the normal map i got from Xnormal and zbrush though the zbrush nrml is not perfect but it looks way better than the one igot from Xnormal
any suggestions?
when i try to generate maps xnormal reads the hipoly file, starts calculating geometry and then "pls, set any hi poly mesh visible" message pops up every time.
there's only one hi poly mesh and it is set to visible. i googled that error and found nothing.
hi poly and low poly were exported as obj from the same max 2010 file. hi poly originally comes from zbrush though. any ideas?
every map (AO, normal and several others) rendered out in xnormal has a strange one pixel border on the top and right side like this:
(what you see here is the top right corner of my normal map in high magnification on a grey background.)
the map was generated with two highpoly models and one single plane as the lowpoly hovering above the highpoly meshes with its normal pointing upwards.
the top and right line of pixels are apparently not used. they become 127,127,127 in normal maps or background color in AO bakes.
scaling the low poly mesh does not influence the error.
does anyone know why this happens and how i can make xnormal use the whole map?
I also suggest to make the LP under the HP, not above.
one of my two hp meshes is a plane, yes, so edge padding itself is not a problem here. i get edge padding on the 1px border though, if i switch it on!
moving the lp underneath the hp is basically the same as inverting the lp plane's normal so it points directly at and not away from the lp, right? i tried that and had the same error, this 1px border.
any other suggestions?
btw: im using xnormal 3.17.15.2000 x64 version
btw: the border also exists in the alpha channel of the normal map as black pixels.
im going to open a new thread for this problem, as it doesnt seem to be that easy and i dont want to hijack this thread...
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1726038#post1726038
You suddenly discovered my top-right rasterizer's filling convention :poly121:
This is DX9's top-left one, an interesting read:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb147314%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#Triangle_Rasterization_Rules
When you render two adjacent triangles with DX9, the top-left borders of each triangle aren't rendered to avoid the shared edge to be drawn two times.
That gray border appears because, probably, your triangles's top-right edges are ending exactly at your [x,1]/[1,y] UVs, hitting the texture's limits, so they won't be rendered.
Just keep some space empty near the texture's borders ( which is also good for the edge padding/dilation filter and to avoid problems with mipmapping :poly121: ).
Also, is a very good idea to use "pixel snap to center" in your 3d modelling app / UV unwrapper ( that's how is called in 3dsmax, pixel snap to center... no idea what's called in Maya ). That will make sure all your UVs are placed at texel's center, improving the compatibility and alignment with all the renderers.
thanks for replying! i have to admit that i dont fully understand that background information about the rendering.
however, there are two things that you might want to consider:
the grey border is not in the normal map. it is only the background that the normal map is displayed on in the app.
second: this normal map is supposed to be used as a tiling detail normal map. that means, i want the whole image to be covered with the normal map information.
also have a look at the thread, i opened: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1726038#post1726038
i actually tried to play around with the 'snap to pixel' option that blender, my modelling app of choice, gives me. it didn't help.
what did help, though, was to extend the unwrap beyond the 1,1 borders by one pixel on the top and right edges. in that case the whole image is used... i haven't found out yet if that is simply a dirty workaround or if the problem has to do with unwrapping in blender and thus my solution was "correct".
notice the gap between the border of the image and the borders of the UVs on the top and right side. with the map resolution i used here, it is exactly one pixel wide. all UV verts are snapped to pixel edges as described above.
baking worked fine with this UV layout.
This might have been asked in past and probably was so i apologize in advance. I am trying to bake a normal map for a very large prop the poly count of the high res obj that i am trying to bake is 14 million. When i try to run the bake i get an error in xnormal saying that the obj is void or doesn't exist. I am able to open the file with Maya so it does exist and it doesn't seem to have any issues. Any ideas how to avoid this issue? Am I trying to bake something past the allowed poly count size? Is there a fix or a work around for this case?
thanks!
-Eugene
Anyone mind telling me if XNormal is having cage problems in the latest version? I was baking a character yesterday, and setup my cage to envelope my HP, but for some reason, my bakes keep on coming out with 'holes' or 'backface' bakes for no reason at all.
When I used the Ray, even at small value, I don't get a fraction of the holes I'm getting with my cage, even when they're shorter then the cage.
To top it all off, these 'holes' are only occurring in my Normal, AO and Thickness map, all very important ones, yet stuff like Cavity, Convex, Vertex Colors, etc don't display these symptoms.
I reset everything on my LP, put Edit Mesh, and did a simple 'Push' of my cage, in Max 2009, SBM format.
Cheers!
what i have been doing is export all 3 meshes, my highpoly, lowpoly, and cage out as seprate sbm files from maya, and have been making my cage by duplicating the lowpoly, and pushing all verts out on there normals slightly. and i get this error everytime i try and bake
EDIT: this seems to be a problem with the sbm format, if i export as OBJ or even FBX i don't have this issue.
im on maya 2012, and using the sbm exporter that comes with XN. with Export Normal, Export UV's, Export tangent basis, and Export vertex colours checked off when i do my exports.