Normals Rendering
Hey everyone, I know I have been posting the same question, but slightly altered latley. I am making a rock brick doorway. I have sculpted each brick in Zbrush for a unique normal map. I know this won't work when I try and render it out, because it will use the same UV space for each brick, so I was wondering is there a way to get a normal map for each brick, despite using a stacked UVW unwrap?
Picture of my setup.
Each one of those bricks UVW unwrap on the lowpoly is stacked ontop one another.
Picture of my setup.
Each one of those bricks UVW unwrap on the lowpoly is stacked ontop one another.
Replies
I have seen people saying this, but I didn't quite fully understand it. People ave said to move everything out of the render box except one of the stacked objects, but wouldn't doing this, and what you suggested give me one unique brick , and the rest the same?
Yes it would.
Your not going to be able to have separate material information from the same texture with overlapped UV's.
Why don't you compromise? Looks like you have some space left over in your unwrap. Maybe do like 4 Unique brick types, then just randomize the 4 brick types along your arch?
I would suggest making the bricks a 1 of 2 multisub materials and fill them out in as much of the uv square as you can. The second material would be the door.
If you don't want to multisub, then I think your stuck with only 3-4 iterations using up the space you have left (unless you scale the uv down).
You can shift uv's to the right a unit and bake a single map(several different ones if you like).
You can shift uv's for the bricks either a unit horizontally, vertically or diagonally, so that you have a pack of them in a square, mix up the order so you don't get a linear pattern, scale the uv's by 25% so they all fit into the 0-1 uv space, only keep 4 in for the bake and shift the rest a unit horizontally.
You can use a technique similar to the previous one but incorporate all your bricks into the bake by scaling down to a smaller size fitting them all into the 0-1 space and baking out to a larger map.
Have select by element on, click on the brick, type 1, hit enter, click another brick, type 2, etc...
Yeah, the way this is modeled is very inefficient, and doesn't suit the unique nature of the highpoly details. You don't really need all of those bevels modeled in(it will be barely noticeable) better to have one solid chunk unwrapped uniquely, or mirrored horizontally.
I think this will be the way to go. I modelled the bricks, and bevelled them so the normal maps wouldn't have 90 degree edges, because when I have tried to do something similar, the hard edge always over takes the normal map, and looks as if there is no normal at all.
With this solid object, would making a object that is an arch be a better idea? Also, would it be a good idea to chamfer the edges on it so it isn't 90 degree edges?
your wasting lots of texture space with faces that are being covered with other bricks, and the player will never see both sides hf the arch at the some time, so you could also cut decimated object down its width, and mirrors it.
Took a minute, and the result was under 200 triangles. That would free up some time and resources if you felt there were any larger silhouette-affecting chips that needed to be modeled in.
Left-Right.
1. My original idea with a stacked UV, obvious they all took the same uv / normal render
2. Is what Passerby suggested, taking the highpoly, decimating it, and using it.
3. Is what most people suggested, making a flat arch mesh for the low.
Thanks for the help everyone. I think I will go with the Arch low poly, but as you said Cyrid, I will take a bit more time, and flesh out some little details, and add the chamfer you have in the example you threw together.
In step 2, did you hipoly bake onto the decimated low poly?
The third option will still be the most optimal way to go anyway. So I'd stick with that approach, unless you are going to get really close to the model.
I did, yes. I am going to go with the arch model, I have modelled one similar to Cryrid's example, it threw together a texture, and it don't look bad, the details are getting through with the normal. The piece is going to be about mid scene, so I'm thinking what I have will be sufficient.