Normal Map issue

Reverenddevil

Ok, I usually dont run into this problem but for some reason this one is bugging me. My edges are not baking the way I would intend them to be. I am getting some bad seams in the bake. I am not sure if this is due to my low poly and not enough geometry, but I tried chamfering the edges and came out with something even worse. Below are the low, high, uvs and the low bake. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Ott

It's difficult to see your UVs like that...try turning the checker pattern off and setting your object color to white.

Most likely the smoothing groups aren't separated for the really sharp angles on the low poly before baking. A good rule of thumb is "90 degree or sharper, separate smoothing groups AND separate UV shells" for clean normals.

Reverenddevil

hey Don, thanks for the reply. I have not tried the smoothing groups yet but here is the uv layout for the piece, really simple. So each uv island should be its own smoothing group? I usually just turn all smoothing groups off all together. i will try it each island as its own smoothing group

PredatorGSR

I get that with xNormal when I don't bake with a cage. Are you baking with a cage?

Reverenddevil

I am using Max and I am turning off the cage and using ray trace.

EarthQuake

Yep that is your problem, when using a cage the projection mesh is "averaged", when using the offset method the projection is split along hard edges(smoothing groups) and will provide missed detail/seams on those hard edges. Best to always use the cage in max if you have any hard edges/smoothing groups.

And in addition, make sure your uv islands are split along hard edges as well.

Reverenddevil

Hey Earthquake, when i bake I usually remove all smoothing groups from my low poly, usually it works, but is it generally bad? Also is it the best anywhere there is a hard edge to uv that seperately? I usually always try to make it contiguous in the unwrap when possible.

Bal

Yeah you really don't want to do that Reverenddevil. Anywhere you have a hard edge you need a UV split.