Normal Map pixelation?

knak47

The pixelating around the chest straps is my main concern. Dont know if it is a TopoGun issue but I have tried baking my normals with MAX and X Normal so it must be my inexperience with normal mapping. I have tried different low poly meshes ( by this I mean I retopologized the character without including the chest straps and then when the issue arose, I went back and followed the straps much closer as you can see in the "Max_lowPoly_render". this didnt solve anything dont know if there is a way to increase the amount of rays in Topogun but I have tried Cages changing the cage distance, still no dice. It seams like this problem is only happening where In ZBrush two subtools met (the body is one subtool, the chest straps and arm straps are separate subtools and the arm straps are doing the same thing. here is my work flow any help is much appreciated.

Work Flow: Detail model sculpted in ZBrush, merged subtools and decimated for export into TopoGun. Retopologized in Topogun, layed out UV's in MAX. Sent it back into Topogun for Map baking.

mystichobo

I believe its something to do with angles, and what the normal map can see (really bad explanation). Are the sides of the Straps Uvmapped? did you separate the straps from the body when you baked?

Buzzy

Nothing really looks broken here. It just looks like you need more UV space for that seam. The texture looks like it is just being stretched.

At first glance, I would say that you probably extruded the straps in the low poly mesh and didn't properly adjust the UVs, so now the texture is being stretch.

cw

When you bake in max, did you turn on supersampling? Areas where different objects join can show similar problems without supersampling. If you post the normal map it will be easy to tell if this is the problem.

Eric Chadwick

Yeah looks like Topogun isn't giving you anti-aliasing along the edges of your high-poly meshes. If it doesn't have that option, one trick is to bake at 2x the resolution, then scale it down in your image editor (like Photoshop). This will add some pseudo-antialiasing.

Eric Chadwick

I added your example here, I hope you don't mind.
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap#Anti-Aliasing

(if you have a better name/link to use for the credit line, let me know)

knak47

Thanks all you for the quick replies. Here are the normals and the Uv layout. I just unwraped it really fast I could definetly utilize more of the space. I am going to try to give the straps more space as Buzzy suggested if that doesnt work I'll try baking it at A higher resolution then downsizing.

Eric Chadwick

UV is a total waste of space, but the UVs are not your problem. Supersampling is.

Eric Chadwick

This is the kind of layout you want.


from Mashru Mishu's Maya / Mudbox: Street Cop Workflow tutorial

knak47

I got the issue resolved by giving the sides of the straps more UV space. I deffinetly do need to unwrap him again. As far as the supersampling I didnt try that because udjusting the UV's solved the problem. Thanks again yall!

Eric Chadwick

Actually it was cw's advice, but yeah *shrug*

knak47

Trust me I didnt ignore the advice, I just tried giving the straps more space because that was suggested and it seemed like it fixed the problem So i stopped there. But as you guys said it just makes it less noticeable. So I decimated the model through it in MAX and turned on superSampling. and thanks guys cuz it looks great. Do you have a preference on what method to use. I changed it to Adaptive Uniform and it looks good. just wondering if you would choose one over the other for any reason.

Ruz

another issue it that because the straps are a separate object you could turn off padding in max completely. this totally resolved the issue for me, but mine was more to do with floating geometry.
might be worth a try anyway

cw

It would be a good excercise to unwrap the guy properly and get a feel for how much more texel density you would get from the same sized map. If you're into that kind of thing, that is.

EarthQuake

Ruz wrote: »

another issue it that because the straps are a separate object you could turn off padding in max completely. this totally resolved the issue for me, but mine was more to do with floating geometry.
might be worth a try anyway

Padding would only be a factor with missed rays, or if the uvs were detached, i dont think either is applicable here.