newb normal query-wavyness
polycounter lvl 12
hey yall, been lurking loads decided to try out normal mapping.
using render to texture / xNormal, ive got the same result of wavyness/distortions (see the screw heads and edge lines).
ive got the hipoly layered up but im not sure if its the scan distance thats doing this. Or maybe the bad mesh? any tips would be great as i really wana get a clean map !
using render to texture / xNormal, ive got the same result of wavyness/distortions (see the screw heads and edge lines).
ive got the hipoly layered up but im not sure if its the scan distance thats doing this. Or maybe the bad mesh? any tips would be great as i really wana get a clean map !
Replies
Apply a checker map to your low poly and make sure its not stretching in the areas where the normal map is distorted.
Could you post a clearer shot of that top side of the normal mapped low poly? It's kind of hard to tell what's going on at the moment.
i did i double check , found inverted faces, re uv'd it. the checker came out constant this time . also i re did the cage (even tho there wasnt much to play with).it fixed the wavyness- one final problem is this light pink area on the borders. the cage hugs the hi-poly well. any thoughts?
As for the pink bits, when you say the cage is hugging the high poly well, do you mean its practically touching? First I would try bumping out the cage a bit more to see if that solves anything.
Are you using mental ray or scanline to render your map?
ill use my new-found bravery to finish this knife and learn how to texture with all those maps finally. cheers sean for the nudge in the right direction .:)
Since I'm better with explaining through images I made one just for this. I'm not sure why your Lowpoly is so high poly but in the image I provided a possible way to model it so it isn't so high poly.
If you need more polies you could chamfer the edges of the model but it doesn't seem necessary in this case.
I also assumed from looking at your renders that your settings for baking weren't set to optimal settings.
Good luck with this, normal maps can be a pain in the ass to bake right. If you follow a few of these simple rules you should be a bit better off.
Also make sure you read the wiki there are plenty of great tutorials and references in there for normal map baking.
i wondered just how low it can go, i think i was scared of the bakes not holding up or something , ima rethink the low poly and clean this mess up *saves image*:)
This mesh will cause more errors when baking however, as the projection normals will be averaged around the harsh angles and small details will become skewed. Reducing to the *absolute bare min* is hardly ever ideal when working with normal maps.
Also, the UV islands are MUCH TOO CLOSE and will cause errors here too.
i cleaned up the meshh, got some cool bakes for the front panel, but the sides are giving me so much grief. its like its missing rays or the cage isnt really behaving well. i might re-uv this. or add geo. any thoughts? (dont mind the uv packing. and yes i pelt mapped it cuz am lazy). i left in the bevels since the edges are very soft.
Have you tried baking from Xnormal?.....also I might be wrong but it doesn't look like you gave the bevel's you added any UV space?.
Also having the black wireframe visible ontop of the normal mapped low-poly makes it only harder to diagnose whats actually happening.
How are you doing your smoothing groups btw?
il try xNormal to compare.
all the settings are setup normally, but im getting a 'blank' normal map.
i tried xnormal and it renders the map out fine. any common errors i should know as i pretty much followed the same settings from the handle.
1.All UV´s are inverted.
Go into the UV editor and hit "Select inverted faces" if everything gets selected you have to mirror it(i think max thinks it hits a backface then or something)
2.Did you forget to add the highpoly to the projection modifier?(Not very common but can happen, i you reapply the modifier and think it´s in there
3.You turned of the rendering of the highpoly(The chances of this happening are really, really small)
I guess it´s the inverted faces, but check the second thing too if it´s not the inverted faces.
thing is , the rays are hitting . otherwise the map would have lots of red . its just not picking up the detail (which is relatively little as its a blade with a slight groove)
why would xnormal render it and not 3ds. and i want to use render to texture as im planning to use a xolihuls shader.
Edit: Solved.
ok for those who wondered: i put a mental ray shader on the High poly (mat experimentin yo), so i switched it back to standard. the details are picked up now. probably explained why the MR renderer picked up some stuff and not the scanline Duh.
And for the red parts if rays miss... you can turn that of, i do that quite often sometimes i only get very small ones(like 1-2 pixels) which i just paint over later.
so far my first attempt with low poly modelling, making a normal map, and playing with xolihuls shader . so go easy ! but tips are welcome too. im gnna progress on to texturing now and will do my best to research relevant tutorials.