3dsmax render-to-texture wont work

Cyph3r

im making an oil drum and im trying to generate a normal map + ambient occlusion from teh high res mesh but for some damn reason... i really need help with this. so heres the high poly next to teh low poly



can someone walk me through how to get the normal maps + AO maps, please.

Mark Dygert

I seem to remember the tutorial that came with 3dsmax was pretty good and covered the basics. It dealt with a chess piece I think...

This is a bit dated but still holds up.
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/normal_workflow.htm

Squirmy

press F1

Squirmy

or

1. uv your lo poly
2. align meshes
3. create a skylight
4. press zero
5. check the enable box under projection mapping area
6. click the pick button and select your HP mesh from the list
7. scroll to the output section and click add
8. select normal and lighting maps
9. set your map settings in the common settings area
10. adjust your projection cage (not in the render to texture dialog)
11. press render

when in doubt look at the max reference material (press F1)

Cyph3r

ive looke at the reference material, and so many tutorials about this but it just doesnt want to work

Cyph3r

why has is came out so crappy ?

Squirmy

try merging your meshes into an new scene and following the steps above. make sure that the light tracer is active under rendering\advanced lighting\light tracer

Cyph3r

Squirmy wrote: »

try merging your meshes into an new scene and following the steps above. make sure that the light tracer is active under renderingadvanced lightinglight tracer

yeah i tried that, got the same result

Eric Chadwick

Normal map looks fine to me, except for the scalloped edges. You could fix those by changing the shape of the cage, pimpinmymouth talks about this in his tutorial.

What material setup are you using to apply the normal map to the low-poly mesh?

Xnormal does a great job with AO, worth a try.

Cyph3r

im using a standard material. no modifications to it at all

Squirmy

your projection cage needs adjustment to get rid of the scalloping. adjust the cage so the verticle segments are closer to the lo poly, segments. basically scale the cage on the z axis using the world reference coordinate system.

it looks flat because your lo poly has enough normal information, there is not enough difference between the lo and high poly, but it will probably look ok with direct X enabled and the maps applied.

Cyph3r

better?

Eric Chadwick

Looks OK, but ultimate test is how it looks on the model. You should probably also layer on some scratches, paint scuffs, dents, etc.

For the shader, this might help.
http://wiki.polycount.net/Normal_Map#ShadersAndSeams

Squirmy

can we see some wires? The low poly looks like it could be opitmized some more.

Jonathan

Max is just revolting 'cause it's tired of baking barrels and crates, oh, and orcs too.

ThE_BirD

is your low poly entirely set to a single smoothing group? ... it should be;)

EarthQuake

ThE_BirD wrote: »

is your low poly entirely set to a single smoothing group? ... it should be;)

This is not always the correct thing to do, and likely in this case will cause smoothing errors.

ThE_BirD

EarthQuake wrote: »

This is not always the correct thing to do, and likely in this case will cause smoothing errors.

true not always, but to keep the smooth edge he's got on the top of the barrel this is one of the few cases where I'd break out the cage in max(I usually avoid the cage altogether) and adjust it down to avoid the warping effect...