Another Normal map seam thread
Hey guys, been trying to find a solution/fix for this issue for days now with no luck so finally figured it'd just be better asking for help rather than pulling my hair out.
In short my problem is that I'm getting some really nasty seams on a head model I've made once I apply the normal map- now here's the problem. These seams are appearing on the head only when the normal map is applied, makes sense, right? What dosen't make sense (to me anyway!) is that after madly trying to paint them out of the normal map in PS etc, I realised that they are appearing on the model's head regardless of whether or not there's any normals actually applied there..
I know they are seasm from my UVW unwrap, that's fine. I just cannot understand why they show up the moment the normal map is active. They aren't baked into the normal map, they just.. show up.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, really starting to go mad over this. I'll include some pics to try and better explain my issue- zbrush capture is just to show that the map dosen't/shouldn't have any normal info around that neck area (I deleted it out while trying to figure out this issue). The colour pic shows the seam issue I'm getting once I turn my normal map on (face looks plain/ugly with it on because I fully removed the face normals from the texture map to show that it can't be those causing this issue, I assume?).
In short my problem is that I'm getting some really nasty seams on a head model I've made once I apply the normal map- now here's the problem. These seams are appearing on the head only when the normal map is applied, makes sense, right? What dosen't make sense (to me anyway!) is that after madly trying to paint them out of the normal map in PS etc, I realised that they are appearing on the model's head regardless of whether or not there's any normals actually applied there..
I know they are seasm from my UVW unwrap, that's fine. I just cannot understand why they show up the moment the normal map is active. They aren't baked into the normal map, they just.. show up.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, really starting to go mad over this. I'll include some pics to try and better explain my issue- zbrush capture is just to show that the map dosen't/shouldn't have any normal info around that neck area (I deleted it out while trying to figure out this issue). The colour pic shows the seam issue I'm getting once I turn my normal map on (face looks plain/ugly with it on because I fully removed the face normals from the texture map to show that it can't be those causing this issue, I assume?).
Replies
Select the texture, as if you were to replace it , and then if you use the third option down, and set Override to 2.2 Your normal map display error should go away ( and your original unpainted out normal map would work again )
It will look overblown in the preview image, but it will be correct.
Nono, the ear normals aren't coming through in that second pic because by then I'd totally deleted all the head normals from the normal map, just to make it clear that it couldn't be them that's casuing this stupid issue around the neck.
B. Where are you trying to preview?
C. Please post shots with the original baked normals, anything else is just confusing and not productive.
You should never try and "paint away" this sort of thing from your normal map. Its very likely not a problem with with the actual image content, but either how you've baked it, where you're previewing, or both.
A. Was using xNormals, baking a high poly done in zbrush, low poly made/unwrapped in max 2010.
B. At the moment I've just been trying to preview it in studio max, using Buzzy's widely used directX shaders from another forum. I should note though that those nasty lines are appearing even in a standard render too, I've tried a few different ways to view it to check it wasn't just the shader.
I'm also aware about never trying to paint away errors, honestly I just thought I'd list it as something I tried because I'm running out of ideas here :P
Here's the original baked normals, only baking half the face and then mirroring it obviously.
Like I said before, the reason I'm so confused by this is because even when the face has no normals applied at all just having the map working on another part of the model seems enough to give the head those seams. They are clearly the seams of my uvw map, just no idea why they are showing up at all. Thanks for all the help so far guys.
@Ace- Yeah I always flip the green before bringing it into studio max to preview. The AO maps I bake I end up merging with other layers to make the diffuse.
3point shader
http://www.3pointstudios.com/3pointshader_about.shtml
Laurens Corign's viewport shader.
http://www.laurenscorijn.com/viewportshader
I haven't heard of the shader your using and the two listed above are known to work.
Also the way you unwrapped it is a bit wonky... but I don't know the full story behind the unwrap.
Also, have you tried simply baking in max?
What happens when you fill the entirety of the normal map with 127/127/255? is that what is happening in the first image? If so, that sounds like an issue with gamma correction on the normal map.
Thanks again for the help guys.
@Ghostscape- If I fill my map with 127/127/255 the seasm don't show up. The reason it's been casuing me a headache is because when I had the normal map on I'd instantly get those nasty head seams, even when there was zero normal information on that part of the map at the time. Whole thing was very odd and I still cant find a reason for why it happened.
edit: Think maybe I've found the cause. Was trying to deepen the new map just now (copying the layer, changing it to multipy and lowering the opticity) but it seems like the second you try, even on 1%, that's when I get the seam. Is there a more tried and tested way to ramp up the normals a bit?
The colors on a tangent space normal map tell each pixel in what direction it should face, and uv orientation etc is taken into account there. The row of pixels on one end of a uv chunk likely will be entirely different than another, so when you mess with the colors there, you're messing with mathematical equation that is there specifically to give the seamless appearance.
Not only that, messing with your normal map is likely to cause smoothing errors as well.
The only time where its really ever going to be acceptable to mess with your normals in photoshop, ie: repaint them, tweak contrast, multiply, etc is when you're doing tiling textures that have no correspondance to specific lowpoly mesh normals. For any baked normal, the information there is 100% correct, and any errors or anything else are due to a poorly set up bake, or poorly set up display(IE: displaying a maya bake in max, etc).