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Normal map problems

DOG-GY
polycounter lvl 12
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DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
I've got little model I've been working on, and I've encountered some issues that I can't solve. For some reason these weird spots on my normals/AO appear when I bake them in xNormal. They're all in the same places on every map I bake, and I've no idea what causes them. I'm honestly not experienced enough with baking maps from a high res model.

They appear on random parts of my low poly's unwrap. I'm sure this is a dumb question that I should know the answer to. Help?

I've solved the problem with my normal issues, now I need to figure out why UDK displays them terribly. See post 11 for details.
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  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    Did you seperate the different parts?Do you use a cage or just ray distances?
    It could be that some parts of the highpoly get projected onto the wrong spot. It would be easier if we could see the actual low and highpoly(and your cage if you use one.)
    And make sure you have set up your uvw´s correctly.
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  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    Yea it looks like tracing errors where other parts of the mesh are being drawn onto parts you dont want them to be drawn on.
    As SpeCter said, explode you model and reduce the ray distance or even better use a cage.
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  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    I can't explode seeing as it's an organic shape.
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  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    Being an organic shape shouldn't make a difference on whether you can explode a model or not as its just a matter of finding natural seams where you can split the mesh.
    One thing you could do is export the parts (head, arms etc.) into different .objs and then bake then separably with the view to compositing them together in Photoshop.

    Did you try changing the projection cage or the ray distance offset?
    It would really help if you posted some shots of the model too.
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  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    A cage should solve the problem, but as I and metalliandy said you should post what you are doing, so we can see whats going wrong
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  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    metalliandy wrote: »
    Being an organic shape shouldn't make a difference on whether you can explode a model or not as its just a matter of finding natural seams where you can split the mesh.
    One thing you could do is export the parts (head, arms etc.) into different .objs and then bake then separably with the view to compositing them together in Photoshop.

    Did you try changing the projection cage or the ray distance offset?
    It would really help if you posted some shots of the model too.
    I did a test with separating the legs off but all I got in return was the same errors. I increased the ray distance and that fixed a lot of problem areas but it got to the point where it was just returned a blurry map (correct me if this was dumb, it might have just looked blurry to me).

    what2.png
    Here's a poor image to show off a problem area. I modified the height map I got from xnormal to make the problem areas show up as black so they'd stand out, and laid it over the uvw map. The black splotches are what you saw in the first image I posted. I can post some better images this evening.
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  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    Did you try a Cage now? If not, do it NOW :P
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  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    SpeCter wrote: »
    Did you try a Cage now? If not, do it NOW :P
    I'll have to do it this evening. I do have a question, though. I've got part of my model that almost overlaps as if it were fat. I do need to have the geometry on the low poly pull in, and it currently is. It created 90 degree angles, but I split the UVs correctly (unless I missed a spot). Is this bad for projection? I split the model up there and baked separately but I'm still getting dumb artifacts.

    I'm not very good with cages but I'll work my ass off to try.

    Ugh I wish I didn't have to come in to work. I feel terrible.
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  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    You should learn to use a cage. It´s not that hard after you did it with different things and saves a lot of time you would have with finding the right ray distance and stuff.
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  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    Okay, I've got the normals fix by screwing around with cages. Looks great in Max! Thanks! Now I just need to get it into unreal properly. I pulled the model in as a static mesh, and also pulled in my diffuse and normal. For some reason, the seams are showing up awfully. I've played with flipping the green channel and reloading the normals in UDK, but I can't get it to show up right. Help?

    And thanks for the help so far!
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  • Axios
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    Axios polycounter lvl 10
    Under compression settings on importing, did you choose normalmap from the drop-down menu?
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  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    E: I fixed the problem I just had. I'm dumb with the UDK :V

    I need to look at these shadow stuffs that I don't like too much and work on it.

    Thank you guys!
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