Normal Mapping Woes (Max)

LuckyNinja

So, I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to normal mapping, but so far *most* of the stuff I've been baking has been doing so all right, but for some reason, when normal-mapping the details for a barrel, I'm getting some horrible distortion effects like so

which results in the model looking like this


Problem is no matter how I seem to light my scene or what-have-you it inevitably winds up looking like this. Some other parts of the model also contain things similar to this, yet they haven't distorted so. Does anyone know what might be causing this, and how to go about correcting it?

Many thanks,

Lucky

cryrid

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154

Visceral

Haha wobbly normals is an entire science my friend.
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

LuckyNinja

I, uh, may have missed that stickied normal map thread. Many thanks for the quick replies!

Mark Dygert

You need to better round out your low poly cylinder so it more closely matches the roundness of the high poly.

You probably could also adjust your cage to help minimize the waviness.
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/normal_workflow_2.htm (Bottom of the page)

You could also try adding edge loops close to the edges that have the wave problem and it will help the cage average the normals a bit easier.

Think of the waves in a normal map like pushing silly putty over a crack, it records the pits and peaks. The waves are a record of the discrepancy between the high and the low, you want the waves in the normal map, its what tries to fake the roundness, but normal maps are lousy at faking a silhouette and one of the issues your having.



1) The low poly is too low res to fake the silhouette of the cylinder.

2) Support edges are added, it helps the top of the cylinder a bit, but the center ring looks like ass.

3) More sides are added to the cylinder, no support edges.