Zbrush normals/Tangent for games
polycounter lvl 4
I have been using max and zbrush for a while now, I am working on games and doing things in UDK. I hit a brick wall when it comes to the putting normals on my low poly. I have clicked about every exporting option combo I can. I think its my the tangent creating issues but I am not how to fix it. I bring it into max and click on the tangent under the normal map area and well you see what it looks like, I click on other things like world etc, and its fine. That would be great if I do just stills.. but I bring them to UDK and They are nice models except for the ungodly seems because of this tangent thing. I would LOVEEEEEE help I have been fighting with this for a few months now and 3 different projects.
TylerSorg
PM me or write here, I would like a detailed description of what to do, just act like I dont' know much... even though I know some things, I feel like Im missing something and need a clear understanding to what it is.
ps I know i have a bad unwrap on the monster lol.
TylerSorg
PM me or write here, I would like a detailed description of what to do, just act like I dont' know much... even though I know some things, I feel like Im missing something and need a clear understanding to what it is.
ps I know i have a bad unwrap on the monster lol.
Replies
Edi: Also, be sure that the normal map's compression setting is set correctly in UDK instead of the default
How did you import the Normal UDK? You need to used the compression setting of either TCNormal or NormalUncompressed.
Also, if you did ANY editing in Photoshop, that can add up to the issues, unless you disable the color manager in it.
So as far as normmals and zbrush goes I get my model read all its sup level, I go to the lowest sub level then I pick my map size (depending on what I do it varies I go high so I can always go down if I need later) Then I go to the normal map (or the Multi Map exporter if I do other maps), but just for normals I click on Tangent smoothUV and SNormals and FlipG. SInce then I have also tryed clickn on adaptive or clicking off of tangent and adaptive.. literally I have done a few combos I even switched off the snormals and smoothUV at one point. Then form there I hit "greate NormalMap" then when its doen I say cloneNM.. go over to textures and export it... some models I have to flip V some I don't.. I have zbrush 4R3 if that matters. Then I have it in max I used it a few different ways I also applyed it with xoulu shader or whatever its called. I haven't tryed the xnormals, but Im downlaoding it now.
In UDK I hit TC_NormalMap, and import the other maps normally do them all as textures and make the materials. And apply to the character again. I have only done a few photoshop things in the past to my normals but I just added in other models maps becasue I had an issue and the end result was the same. I normally don't have to do anything in photoshop as far as normals go. Some times I bring the Texture maps in and combine the AO map, and then I turn the cavity map into a spec map. No issue there though. I refused to believe its zbrush being newer like the one dude said. This is one of the main things zbrush is for, normals for video game characters. They use in in video game production on any good games now, Im pretty sure the dont' have to do a lot of extra stuff to make the models work.
TylerSorg
Zbrush is good for creating the high-res models used to create the normals, but it's not good for baking normal maps. Normal maps are just one of those things where there's not an option that would work for everyone/every program (and Unreal is a bit more finicky with its normal maps from what I hear).
Even zmapper wasn't that useful, which was why it was removed. For example:
"The problem here is that different rendering engines handle normal maps differently. This is why there are so many different settings for normal map creation. What that meant was that often times a map that looked fine in ZMapper looked bad in the rendering engine that was actually going to be used. Other times, a normal map would often look bad in ZBrush, leading the user to believe that it was a bad map despite the fact that once applied in the target rendering engine it would actually have been perfect! It is therefore more desirable to always view your normal maps in the actual engine where they will be used. GoZBrush will make this extremely easy for many programs -- as simple, in fact, as clicking a button"
The calculations are supposed to be better now than with zmapper, but I still don't think they'd be as useful when compared to baking in a program like xnormal or max that would give you control over the normals, cages, etc.