normal Map Smoothing Groups in max

Timothy_graybill

Hey guys, Ive been having problems with my normal maps not working right with my smoothing groups in max. I learned that your supposed to put all your smoothing groups to 1 group when you apply a normal map. Bu with this model Its not looking quite right. Im getting bad dark areas from the smoothing groups.


and If I use auto smooth on the group it looks better but I get a bad hard edge.


I baked my normals in zbrush and they look perfectly fine in there when the normal map is applied.

Any Ideas or solutions would be very helpful.

Thanks

Eric Chadwick

Re-bake in 3ds Max with 1 smoothing group, and use the 3Point Studios shader.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72861

00Zero

you shouldnt have a problem with the hard edge. it looks more correct than the first one.

Michael Knubben

Eric: Unless the engine he's using supports 3ps' fix, how will that help him? Does anything support that already?
What I would have suggested is to break up the normals along his uv-islands, and that should be enough to sort out the shading errors. This should have zero impact on the ease of texturing, since the uv-layout remains the same.
After that: rebake!
If you change your vertex normals, you need to rebake your normalmap.

You say you get a 'bad' hard edge. I can't judge without seeing the highpoly, so I'll take your word on it being different from the hp. In which case, do you mean a black line? Because then that's a problem with your uv's. Your uv's need to be broken up and moved apart everywhere you have a hard edge in your normals (edge of a smoothing group in max, 'hard edge' in... everything else I think? maya/xsi/modo...)

Timothy_graybill

thanks for the advice guys. I am putting this in unreal anyway and it seems to be working pretty good in it. so I wont worry about it for now.