3d max, baking lightmap - 3 questions
1. Can Max bake lightmap to 1 file from many separated objects?
2. Can Max take into consideration smoothing groups during baking?
3. If not 'Render to texture' from 3d max - what program do you use to baking lightmap?
2. Can Max take into consideration smoothing groups during baking?
3. If not 'Render to texture' from 3d max - what program do you use to baking lightmap?
Replies
Max does take smoothing groups into consideration.
Most other people, assuming they're not using built in tools (maya, max, xsi, whatever) probably use XNormal.
You can either:
- Set up each object individually in RTT then select them all and click render, it will batch process all the objects. Unfortunately they will all go into separate files.
- So I suggest you create a copy, merge all the objects into one, and render it once. Then delete the copy and apply the material to the original objects.
2) Pretty sure it does this normally. Both Mental Ray AO and Scanline take it into account. Remember that where ever you have smoothing breaks, all game engines break the geometry. Since this also happens along UV seams its a good idea to plot your seams and smoothing groups along the same lines.
3) RTT works great in most cases but so does Xnormal. But the whole, export to another app to bake AO can be a bit of a chore, but it does give slightly better results if you need them.
- If you decide to use RTT, you can either use the automated Mental Ray AO, it comes up as an option in RTT if you have your offline render'er set to Mental Ray.
- OR you can use regular Scanline and a custom light set up, like a sky light with light tracer enabled, or a light dome like E-Light Dome. http://home.wanadoo.nl/r.j.o/skyraider/e-light.htm
In this case you would render a diffuse map with lights & shadows checked on in RTT.
a good one for 3dsmax!
And it's a really fast one! just try it, there is trial version you can download...
I have installed mine for 1 week now... it's work perfectly!! But I don't know how many time the trial will continu...