Normal Map seams in 3ds Max

Will Faucher

Hey,
So I'm having some seam issues in Max. When I display the normal map on my model in Crazybump, everything is flawless, not a seam anywhere. However, once it's in max, there are lighting seams everywhere along my UV seams.
Is it my fault? Or is there something that I'm not doing right in max?
For the record, I baked in xNormal, and I tried flipping the green channel. No difference. Also, I'm viewing this with the xoliul viewport shader. However, I experienced the same seam issues with the offline renderer. So the problem isn't that.

Thanks!

Eric Chadwick

How does it look in Xnormal?

Apps usually use different tangent bases. A map baked in one app should display perfectly in the same app, but probably won't in another app. You just have to test variations. I think Xnormal includes 3ds Max's tangent basis as an option to bake to.

3ds Max is an exception in that it uses a different tangent basis for baking than it does for viewport display, causing seams. It uses the same tangent basis for scanline rendering however.

Will Faucher

Hmm you're right, in xNormal it looks flawless. But in max there are seems. Is there any way to avoid the seams in max? Or better even, to avoid the seams in Unreal? I haven't brought it in-engine yet, so I don't know what the results will be, but hopefully it will be ok

EarthQuake

Show some images of the problem, "seams" could mean a couple different things.

Will Faucher

Here it is. Those seams aren't diffuse related. It's purely normal map related. My map is fine, it comes out perfect in both Crazybump and xNormal.

teaandcigarettes

Judging by the model, it's probably Max acting funny again.

Just drop it into unreal to trim down the potential offenders.

Before you do that, make sure that when you bake the maps, your space coordinates in Xnormal are set to x+ y-z+; these are the settings that Unreal uses. You wouldn't believe how many times I forget to set them up properly and then I ponder why my normals look like crap.

Will Faucher

Ahh! Excellent! Thank you very much! I'll definitely have to do that before getting this into unreal!

PredatorGSR

Prophecies wrote: »

Ahh! Excellent! Thank you very much! I'll definitely have to do that before getting this into unreal!

This is the same thing as flipping the green channel, it just automates it, so I don't think it will solve your problem.

I would recommend previewing stuff in Marmoset, it is the easiest and clearest way to look at props, and it is a game engine, so you can preview what your stuff will look like in an engine. If it looks good in marmoset, it is a pretty good bet it will look good in any other engines too.

I don't preview stuff in xNormal because it can look good in xNormal and bad in other engines. Marmoset is a good impartial 3rd party observer for testing your props. I wouldn't put any stock into whether something looks good in Max.

FYI: Marmoset uses +X +Y +Z, so you don't flip the green channel for it.

It looks like there is a hard edge in the model in Max. I use a hard/soft edges script in Max, and I've noticed that sometimes it doesn't translate properly to smoothing groups when exporting to engines. Maybe something similar is happening to you.

teaandcigarettes

Cool Baking rocks and organics is usually a straightforward process, I doubt you will encounter any more problems. Neverthless, I would love to know whether it works or not.

Predator:

I think that Xnormal's display matches Unreal pretty well. Unless my green channel is pointing in the wrong direction, I've yet to encounter any problems where it looks right in one, but wrong in the other.

Will Faucher

I'm actually displaying this with Xoliul's viewport shader. It's not a render. I'll get this into unreal as soon as I can, but for now, the shader is all I've got.

reiro

Since i do not want to open a new thread for this i hope its ok to post my issue here.
I got seams or better shader errors with my viewport shader in max (xoliuls)

I thought of doing different smoothing groups for each side to avoid that but i decided to chamfer the edges and do it one smoothing group to have it easier when texutring.

Since i got some "holes" in the mesh there are some sharp tris unavoidable which lead to that effect.

However in Unreal shader this problem is non existent.
Now my question is after reading this thread. is this just normal and you ll better of in testing things in marmoset/unreal etc?

Eric Chadwick

If it looks good in Unreal, then it doesn't matter what it looks like in Max.