Bloated Normals ?

DJ_Aaron

Hey folks new here on the forums, I just came across a problem when baking out the normals in Xnormal for my ammo crate , the normal map has a curved like surface after i baked it when my object has'nt got smoothing groups of curved edges any suggestions why this is happening....

Heres Screens

gsokol

First off, are you using a cage? Setting that up will help with your warp in your bake.

So there are no smoothing groups at all right? You didn't set up any? Your map, like you mentioned definitely suggest that its not reading those edges as hard. If you don't have smooth groups...set those up and maybe Xnormal will read it correctly.

If those 2 things don't work...it could be possible that you are losing smoothing information from your export. I'd check there next.

DJ_Aaron

it has no cage and no smoothing plus i reimported my mesh and i get this ??

Ace-Angel

Well, you kinda need to cut the UV's at the correct smoothing group locations and set up all that stuff correctly if you want to use UDK.

If the Box was completely flat (EI: Doesn't have all those extra bump, recesses and details in the LP version) then yeah, what you're doing could work with a few tweaks, but since it's not, putting up no smoothing groups and having only what amounts to 5 cuts and 1 planar in your UV's, isn't going to play nice on your Normals.

Someone else might fill you in better, but my first solution would be to unwrap the model again, and do it properly this time with chunk in the areas that can be chunked (like the handles for example).

Or you could simply say 'fuck all that' and import with the no smoothing groped version of the mesh, and manually create your normals as dirty method of having something to work with.

DJ_Aaron

Well cheers , Managed to get that ugly thing fixed up their by pressing the reset smoothing groups button , the smoothness is now gone but the only problem im getting now , which i never had before is the bent parts ? right at the front of my box ? ....

DJ_Aaron

Heres my uv's they look fine to me ?

ajr2764

looks like alot of the issue is in the unwrap u did. Your using headus to uv..which isnt really that efficient for hard surface.

Ace-Angel

As I said, it's due to the UV's, they're too organic for an object like that and the lack of straight lines doesn't help, you need to cut them up more and straighten them out.

butt_sahib

I dont see how "organic" or "inorganic" uvs would help in getting a different normal map. Same thing with the lack of straight lines. Yes, straightening up those uvs woud definitely help you texture it easier. Remember,you need to use the plannar mapping technique abundantly for inorganic models.
For improving your normal map, yes, breaking up your uvs where you have really sharp edges or where theres a break in the smoothing groups (which by the way you should have in your model at sharp right angles) will improve your overall normal map.
As far as those squiggly lines are concerned, id suggest reading the thread here at PC. Youre probably going to need a supporting loop to get rid of those id say. Also, dont forget to rebake every time you touch your uvs

and just for future reference, your high poly has really sharp bevels and extrudes. You should check out the polywikis section on normal maps. Basically, if you have extrudes which arent at an angle less than the surface noral from where you extruded the shape, your not going to get the same depth in the normal map. Again, i personally wont be able to explain it here ofcourse, you should head over to the polywiki to read up on your material.

Ace-Angel

Little test: Make a diagonal line on a 256 map and apply to it the model, make the same line straight and apply it to the model, the difference is clear as night and day.

Having straight lines means no anti-aliasing of a diagonal line, which in turn means you can smaller textures, which in turn means more resources saved. There is also less chance of them bending and giving weird nudges in sections of the mesh like he has now.

Simply put, hard object will need straight lines, proper cuts and smooth's in order to get clean bakes with minimum head-ache 101.

DJ_Aaron

Thanks for the help . i'll try and improve my uv's and sort my geo a bit more ..

r_fletch_r

ajr2764 wrote: »

looks like alot of the issue is in the unwrap u did. Your using headus to uv..which isnt really that efficient for hard surface.

they just need to straighten some edges. which headus is great at.

CheeseOnToast

^ Agreed. If you're using the pro version you can tag edges for straightening with the "i" key.