Issue Baking Complete Map

nevets2001uk

I'm working on a quite basic seating bench in 3ds Max. I have created a high poly with some subdivision and floating surface details, similar to the cg-tuts http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-3d-studio-max/next-gen-weapon-creation-day-1-the-high-poly-model/ tutorial process.

I have now exploded the high and low models so I can do a normal bake and complete map for AO. I set it up as in the 3rd video (at least I thought I'd followed it correctly) but when I bake I have a problem.

The normal map is fine, but the complete map renders completely black, sometimes with some small areas of red from the missed ray check. I'm trying to work out the cause but don't have enough experience.

I have a skylight in the scene, the project seems to be working based on the the normal map and the light tracer etc is enabled. Is there anything obvious that would cause a black complete map. Not I tried using the lightmap also with similar results, so almost as if no lights in the scene.

McGreed

Have you remembered to either put an 100% transparent material or turn off Cast Shadow on the lowpoly?

nevets2001uk

Doh! That may well be it. Will try later today and report back.

nevets2001uk

I tried this last night and initially no joy. However when flicking through the render settings tabs I noticed one had mostly 0's in it (can't recall which one now). There was an option to set to defaults and this populated the settings and now it works, even with the low poly visible.

Not sure how it got changed though.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway.

leechdemon

Are you baking a complete map from the low poly one? You'll want to do it from the high poly, I imagine. Also, does the high and low poly share the same material?

Black Rendering sounds like missing normals. You might get this if you've baked a normal map, that map is applied to your high poly mesh (baking likes to assign the maps to slots), and the high poly mesh doesn't have UV's. Then when it renders, it tries to look up the lighting info from the Normal Map, (which it can't, because the high poly doesn't have UV's), and errors with black. A simple test for this would be a render, though; does a render of your high poly look the same now as it did before the normal bake? If THAT is black too, something is wrong.

Alternatively, can you render a complete map without the Light Tracer? If THAT works, but it's messed up with Light Tracer turned on, then you'll know your problem is something with the light tracer itself, rather than projection, materials, etc. Not a definitive answer, but it'd help narrow in on the cause.

Oniram

make sure your material is white for both the low and hi poly, and that your normal map is not applied to either. ill make that mistake sometimes where ill try to take a look at the normals, see something wrong and leave the map applied, then bake again. i get a new bake with the old bake on top of it. if by some chance youve got your normals on the hp, it could cause it to be black, but more than likely i think just making a white material and putting it to both will help.