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symmetry - normal map issues

Ged
interpolator
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Ged interpolator
poohsymmetry.jpg

Im using 3dsmax and xnormal

any idea whats causing this? I suppose the threshold 0 version isnt too bad but its still kinda noticable.

Replies

  • EarthQuake
    try welding your uvs as well.
  • Josh_Singh
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    Josh_Singh polycounter lvl 18
    weld it, then offset your uv's on x by 1. Sometimes that works
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    Are you using the SBM format exporter? If not, try it, it's jogshy's own format so it should be perfect.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    EarthQuake wrote: »
    try welding your uvs as well.
    thanks guys
    hmm I cant weld the uvs pooh is symetrical, I will see what that shifting by 1 trick does

    heres the colour map
    poohcolour.jpg
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    MoP wrote: »
    Are you using the SBM format exporter? If not, try it, it's jogshy's own format so it should be perfect.


    I used obj converted to sbm to bake the maps but only used half of the model for the bake and then did symmetry modifier on the old obj afterwards to get my final model. Would it have baked just as well with the full model as with the one side? anyway this makes it hard to use the sbm now. :/

    cant seem to get the uvs offset to do anything useful. might come back to this later gameartisans extended the deadline to sunday.
  • EarthQuake
    Ah yeah there is your problem, what you want to do is bake the entire model, but on your lowpoly, just offset one side of the uvs 1 unit to the side. If you just have half the model there, your normals are all incorrect down the seam.
  • Ghostscape
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    Ghostscape polycounter lvl 13
    If you baked with only one half of the model, if you take both halves and run a smoothing group between them (so left is 1, right is 2, etc) your currently-baked normals will work, btw. But thats kind of hacky :)

    But its better to just re-bake them properly as EQ outlined.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    thanks alot EQ and Ghostscape, I want to do this properly so I will re-bake and start again on the weekend.
  • Junkie_XL
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    Junkie_XL polycounter lvl 14
    EarthQuake wrote: »
    Ah yeah there is your problem, what you want to do is bake the entire model, but on your lowpoly, just offset one side of the uvs 1 unit to the side. If you just have half the model there, your normals are all incorrect down the seam.

    So overlap your mirrored shell and move it in the "W" direction? Or move the mirrored shell out of 0-1 space? With the UV's welded? Without? If welded, won't that streak across something else and get in the way?

    Could somebody do a video tutorial or step by step pictures? I recall running into this problem early last year. I had to move onto a new project and never came back to it.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    I would suggest :
    >Keep your lowpoly intact and full, with middle verts properly welded
    >Unwrap as needed (UV splits shouldn't but who knows...), split the UVs down the center of the face, and move the unused part away to the right. (1 unit offset)
    >since the lowpoly is full, the vertex normals of the center line will point straight forward, hence will 'reach' the middle line of the highpoly perfectly. Bake away.
    >Also, do both the bake and the realtime viewing in Xnormal. If it shows perfectly in Xnormal but bad in the engine, just ask the engine guy to get the engine up to Xnormal quality.

    Hope this helps!
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    thanks for the help guys, it is very much appreciated. I moved the second set of uvs 1 unit to the right and that seemed to fix it - is this right?

    uvfix.jpg

    poohfix.jpg

    plz ignore wip colour textures :/
  • EarthQuake
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