Normal maps flatten after UT3 lightmap bake

Mazvix

Hi Guys,

I am working on an interior scene that is affected by exterior light that is passing through a crack in the cieling. Some of the shadows do not reflect on the wall mesh ( it is almost like a dome) despite how high the lightmap resolution is. And second most important is normal maps flatten completely inside.

Please help!

Ark

A pic of your scene would be a great help if you could post it?

Mazvix

No problem. I usually do not like posting anything unfinished but I need yout help.

As you see right pipe isn't casting shadow and the pillow/mattress's Normal map isnt showing neither is the flags. (do not mind the white dots, no idea where they came from). Keep in mind this is ALL w.i.p.

Thanks-

ImSlightlyBored

too tired to go on about shadows problems
but your normal maps... try multiplying by X,X,1 in the material
and be aware that they do flatten a little when lighting is baked anyway. They are never as nice when baked versus dynamic light source

Mazvix

That fixed it, thanks a lot dude. I will keep messing around with the shadow problem.

|*BILLY$CLINT*|

Mazvix wrote: »

That fixed it, thanks a lot dude. I will keep messing around with the shadow problem.

Hey I have a quick question about your screen shot if you don't mind:). I noticed that you have some gray pixels that form a grid on your screen shot and I was wondering what that was.

Mazvix

When I did the 'tiledshot' command this came up, I think you have to just re do it, because this is the first time I ever get this problem.

3DK.P.

Question about you shadow problem. Do the shadows pop in and out as you get closer and further away? And also, are you trying to do dynamic shadows?

Mazvix

I wanted all the meshes to be dynamic its easier and faster in terms of lightnig/ bounce light instead of having to rebake the scene everytime I add a bounce light to reflect off of meshes. But it doesn't work very well in terms of the way I set it up.

Everything you see is baked, but if u look closer at the bed- it doesnt cast shadow in the lit area which isn't true in RL. So I check on 'bcast dynamic shadows' from the camera distance it works just fine, but if i move back enough it will offcourse start popping. I might have to make the flag dynamic so it casts shadow because baking it on the wall mesh isn't cutting it as you see.

Since I last posted I updated the scene it is coming along so who knows. If you got something to share, please do not hold back I am open to more suggestions it might open a missing link in my head.

Thanks!

3DK.P.

Ah I see, I was having problems with dynamic shadows popping in and out in UE3 as well. If you move too far back then they will just disappear right? Anyway, I found that changing a value in the UTEngine.ini will take care of this little problem. If you open up the ini file and go to the section that has [UTEditor.UTUnrealEdEngine] at the top, under that section you will see a value named "ShadowVolumePrimitiveScreenSpacePercentageThreshold". You should change this value to .025. By default it's set to .250000

You may have to tweak that value a bit but, I haven't had any problems with dynamic shadows culling when the camera gets too far away.

Hope that helps!

Mazvix

3DK.P. wrote: »

Ah I see, I was having problems with dynamic shadows popping in and out in UE3 as well. If you move too far back then they will just disappear right? Anyway, I found that changing a value in the UTEngine.ini will take care of this little problem. If you open up the ini file and go to the section that has [UTEditor.UTUnrealEdEngine] at the top, under that section you will see a value named "ShadowVolumePrimitiveScreenSpacePercentageThreshold". You should change this value to .025. By default it's set to .250000

You may have to tweak that value a bit but, I haven't had any problems with dynamic shadows culling when the camera gets too far away.

Hope that helps!

Hey thanks! I found and followed everything you have told me, but I can't really tell for certain objects, I know for sure the iron gate keeps popping in and out- especially at the distance that I am taking the shots from, simply doesn't show.

If I set the value to 0.009, does that tie in to a greater distance? Also I have had the editor from buying UT3 and I wasn't sure if there were any patches out there that I need to download to keep my editor updated.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Mazvix

This is Odd it keeps changing back to 0.25 is this common because what we are trying to accomplish is useless if the value can never be changed lol

3DK.P.

oh, do you have UE3 open while you are trying to change the value? Because that would be the reason why it does not save correctly. You need to close UE3 before you edit the .ini file. And yes .009 would be result in you being able to see it from a greater distance.