Zbrush Retopology help Backface culling

4leaf · Oct 2011

Hello there. I'm in the process of retopologizing a human figure that I sculpted in zbrush.

I have gotten decently far with it, but it is very quickly becoming an impossible task due to the fact that when you are creating new topology for your model, the model remains transparent, meaning that you can see absolutely everything that's on the other side of the model. It has become impossible to work due to the fact that my viewport is just a jumbled mess of lines and I can't tell what is on what side anymore...

Is there any way I can make my model completely solid so that Retoping isn't a pain in the ass?

I've been searching for an answer, but am not finding much... In other software packages I think this is called "Backface culling"

Any and all possible solutions would be very helpful! Thank you so much.

cryrid · Oct 2011

I usually switch to different matcaps/colors that help camouflage the gray lines (backside) while still allowing me to see the bright orange front-side lines.

Ace-Angel · Oct 2011

I might have misunderstood the question, and it's been a while since I retopo'd in ZB, but there are two ways.

Display > Double Sided and disable (although I think since v3.5 they removed that method)

Or Preferences > Draw > Back and Front Transparency (change them around).

G-Saviour18 · Oct 2011

Anyone find a solution for this? Ace Angels solution by altering the back and front transparency is close to solving the problem but not quite

4leaf · Oct 2011

Yeah, I've tried the Back/front transparency change and it gives me strange results... What is this Matcaps/Colors things that you were talking about cryid? How do I change them and what are they?

Other than that... Zbrush fails me again. They really should add in backface culling. It would make life so much easier than having to use these ghetto work arounds.

G-Saviour18 · Oct 2011

Having looked around a little longer there seems to be quite a few other people that have the same problem, looks like this is just a bug in ZBrush 4, I remember doing this no problem when i was using 3.1, might have to go back to 3.1 for now until pixologic does something

cryrid · Oct 2011

What is this Matcaps/Colors things that you were talking about cryid? How do I change them and what are they?

Just change the currently selected matcap and main color like you normally would. Some matcaps work better on their own in their default state (white color), others work better when you pick a darker gray. It doesn't prevent you from seeing the edges on the other side of the model, but it makes them a lot harder to notice compared to the orange edges in the front.

4leaf · Oct 2011

That's odd, because my lines in the back aren't grey, they are all bright orange... It's extremely obnoxious. No matter what matcap I use all lines are always bright orange.

Oh... another odd thing...

For some strange reason... When I adjust the front and back face transparency settings under Preferences> Draw as suggested by Ace, as you can see from my screenshot, Zbrush horribly estimates what lines are on the fron and what lines are on the back. It dims some lines that are clearly on the front of the mesh... it's odd.

cryrid · Oct 2011

Yeah, I saw G-Saviour18 having that problem in another thread. Are you on R2 yet? Z4 had that problem for me, but R2 seems to have it sorted out.

felipefrango · Oct 2011

Yeah, it's been like this since 4, but I haven't tried it out in R2. The issue was so unbearable it made me look for alternatives, like Topogun, and I'm glad I did, that's one awesome piece of software.

4leaf · Oct 2011

Yeah it's pretty unbearable... Uhh I'm using Zbrush 3.5 so no I haven't tried R2.. =/ Yeah... I'm using topogun next time.

cryrid · Oct 2011

I'd recommend the free upgrade either way.

Zbrush Retopology help Backface culling

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