Just remember that a problem you have could be shared by many users on these forums who would benefit just as much as yourself when you found out/solved the problem.
Also lots of users dont post, they just enjoy lurking and learning so its also beneficial for them. Not to mention people who dont want to seem "dumb" asking questions others might find as common knowledge.
I needed to invert the green channel. Was sorta a brain freeze on my part, and seems to be common knowledge (even for nabs like me xD) so I just wanted to delete the topic.
That said, im still having problems with the model. Im trying to export from XSI, and it just wont show up right in marmoset. Keep getting 'edges'.
When exporting from 3dsmax with smoothing groups it shows up correct.
Know I could bevel the edges etc., but im generally having alot of trouble exporting from XSI ='(
It could be that the 3dsmax>XSI>Marmoset process is preserving the split vertex normals from Max. But the straight XSI>Marmoset is not preserving any split vertex normals from XSI. Did you split the normals in XSI? I don't use XSI, sorry, not sure what the terms are there.
I think the term we use is "hard edge". Which application was the normal map built in, and does the XSI version you're exporting have the same smoothing as the max version / one used to create the normal map?
If it does, try checking the option to export the User Normals when saving to obj (it's off by default). I think the alternative would be to disconnect the edges where the smoothing splits to force the vertex splits.
Yes, I've tried assigning the 'user normals' in xsi to mimic the smoothing groups in max, but somethings wrong I guess. Im baking with xnormal. I have been saving with 'user normals' checked, so that shouldnt be the problem.
I'll poke around with it tomorrow (and post the results ofc ^^).
scum, try exporting in a different file format. I kept losing my smoothing groups in sbm, which I assumed was the best format (should be, but clearly not), so I tried another format and it worked.
As a rule fo thumb, I always check the model in the viewer before I do anything, just to see if lp and hp are aligned and SG's were imported correctly.
edit: oh, if you're exporting to obj, also make sure you're not forgetting to export normals, and you'd be better off not optimising verts or uv's.
If there's any chance at sharing the objs from both Max and XSI, I think it would be interesting to see the differences between them as far as the normals/shading goes.
At the moment this is is the best I can get with tangents, no geo approx, and horrible uvs:
(I'm guessing an undesirable gradient on the top)
Sorry for the delay, I've been away for a few days.
I finally got it to work. Tried so many different things its almost hard to point towards what I did wrong. Think part of the problem was the bake, which was done off the 3dsmax obj (xsi bake looked strange). Considering its the same object (including smoothing group wise) it should have looked fine, but..
Finally got the bake to look right with the obj from XSI (think I needed todo a freeze transformations).
All in all it now looks fine in Marmoset, but UDK... see below
invert green channel in unreal. very easy to do, in the material editor, multiply the normalmap by a 3 vector, with red and blue channels set to "1", and green set to "-1".
Replies
Also lots of users dont post, they just enjoy lurking and learning so its also beneficial for them. Not to mention people who dont want to seem "dumb" asking questions others might find as common knowledge.
I needed to invert the green channel. Was sorta a brain freeze on my part, and seems to be common knowledge (even for nabs like me xD) so I just wanted to delete the topic.
That said, im still having problems with the model. Im trying to export from XSI, and it just wont show up right in marmoset. Keep getting 'edges'.
When exporting from 3dsmax with smoothing groups it shows up correct.
Know I could bevel the edges etc., but im generally having alot of trouble exporting from XSI ='(
If it does, try checking the option to export the User Normals when saving to obj (it's off by default). I think the alternative would be to disconnect the edges where the smoothing splits to force the vertex splits.
Or just use object-space maps instead?
Yes, I've tried assigning the 'user normals' in xsi to mimic the smoothing groups in max, but somethings wrong I guess. Im baking with xnormal. I have been saving with 'user normals' checked, so that shouldnt be the problem.
I'll poke around with it tomorrow (and post the results ofc ^^).
As a rule fo thumb, I always check the model in the viewer before I do anything, just to see if lp and hp are aligned and SG's were imported correctly.
edit: oh, if you're exporting to obj, also make sure you're not forgetting to export normals, and you'd be better off not optimising verts or uv's.
At the moment this is is the best I can get with tangents, no geo approx, and horrible uvs:
(I'm guessing an undesirable gradient on the top)
I finally got it to work. Tried so many different things its almost hard to point towards what I did wrong. Think part of the problem was the bake, which was done off the 3dsmax obj (xsi bake looked strange). Considering its the same object (including smoothing group wise) it should have looked fine, but..
Finally got the bake to look right with the obj from XSI (think I needed todo a freeze transformations).
All in all it now looks fine in Marmoset, but UDK... see below
You can download the two objs here if you wish.
http://www.scumworks.com/otr/dmp/objs.rar
Thanks m8, but it was due to missing hard edges.
From what I can tell you need to set 'hard edges' in xsi prior to exporting with actorX. The .ase (actorX) seem to simply ignore 'user normals'.
I've tried exporting with .fbx and .dae, but im getting strange results. Also, udk doesnt seem to wanna reload/reimport the models if needed.