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(Help) 3D High Poly Baking - Trouble with Simplicity

So I'm a beginner modeler, modeling a Trigun for my own personality enjoyment, and I finished it. However, I sub-d'd it and now I need to bake shit. I thought it would be simply however i was wrong. The BULLETS aint working (easiest thing to do, so i did it first.)

HP Bullet
nJlB

LP Bullet
nJlU

So you take the too, unwrap the low poly. Put The HP in the LP, then apply a projection modifier and push the vertex out so it covers the whole HP. Once thats done you press 0 for Render to Texture, apply a normalmap map, 1024x1024, use projection, render. End up getting this

nJn1

You don't see it here but I got Ray on Flat Surfaces!. Makes no sence. The cage is CLEARLY over it. Also wavenyness -.- ... use the Point 3P Shader, apply the normal to a prim texture, then apply it to the bullet, and I end up getting things like this

nD4N
nD5E

I have no experience in this, nor do i even understand how it works, i just followed a tutorial.

What exactly am i doing wrong?

Replies

  • cryrid
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    cryrid interpolator
    For waviness see http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154

    You could probably get rid of the 4 loops towards the middle of the case that dont really make a significant difference to the silhouette, and put the geo towards making the bullet more round or smoothing out some of those 90' transitions around the primer and bullet
  • Shiro Itami
    cryrid wrote: »
    For waviness see http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154

    You could probably get rid of the 4 loops towards the middle of the case that dont really make a significant difference to the silhouette, and put the geo towards making the bullet more round or smoothing out some of those 90' transitions around the primer and bullet

    So make the bullet more round, try and remove the 90 degree turns and add more geometry to the bullet?
  • Mark Dygert
    1) it looks like you're rendering normal maps with Mental Ray? This is bad for a few reasons.
    1. The default final gather settings are blurry compared to scanline.
    2. It gets the background color wrong, even if its set to the proper color in RTT.
    3. It fudges up the edge padding like nobodies business, which isn't showing up on you're renders because it looks like you don't have the padding set very high? You want lots of edge padding to help with seams around the normal maps.

    2) The waves are coming from the difference between the high poly and the low poly. This is normal and expected. The greater the discrepency between the number of sides in the low/high the greater the waves will be in the normal map. It's trying to project a rounded surface on something flat, because it effects the silhouette its going to look bad, normal maps don't fake silhouette details well at all.
  • EarthQuake
    I'm a bit surprised someone has yet to mention the obvious:

    A. You'll never see a bullet this close up, fretting over minor waviness is just... silly

    B. You have way to much geometry, again going back to A. The number of sides is ok for the distance you would view this asset from, all the little details modeled in are really excessive, you need to let the normal map do its job. You've got (from my count) about 15 segments on this cylinder?! You can get by with about 4, just to represent the basic silhouette. No need to model in the indent in the front of the bullet, you would litterally *never* see this in a game(unless there is a *shoot yourself in the face* animation). No need for the indent in the back of the bullet either, do something interesting with your highpoly model here, some slopped bevels like a real bullet has.

    Coolest_Ammunition_Gadgets_1.png

    No indent, just some gentle slopes that your normal map will do a great job representing.
  • EarthQuake
    Heres an image:
    bulletnmstuff.jpg

    You could go up to 16 sides if you really want to, but keep in mind how the asset will actually be viewed. Even at 16 sides with a more logical topology you would be using way less geometry than your model above.

    TLDR; less is more
  • Shiro Itami
    EarthQuake wrote: »
    Heres an image:

    You could go up to 16 sides if you really want to, but keep in mind how the asset will actually be viewed. Even at 16 sides with a more logical topology you would be using way less geometry than your model above.

    TLDR; less is more

    Well, the bullet only has 12 sides. I can go with less I suppose. Plus im removing the front and back indents, and replacing the back with the normal mapping.
    EarthQuake wrote: »
    I'm a bit surprised someone has yet to mention the obvious:

    A. You'll never see a bullet this close up, fretting over minor waviness is just... silly

    B. You have way to much geometry, again going back to A. The number of sides is ok for the distance you would view this asset from, all the little details modeled in are really excessive, you need to let the normal map do its job. You've got (from my count) about 15 segments on this cylinder?! You can get by with about 4, just to represent the basic silhouette. No need to model in the indent in the front of the bullet, you would litterally *never* see this in a game(unless there is a *shoot yourself in the face* animation). No need for the indent in the back of the bullet either, do something interesting with your highpoly model here, some slopped bevels like a real bullet has.


    No indent, just some gentle slopes that your normal map will do a great job representing.

    Well I understand what your trying to say. Tbh i was just following a reference so I modeled it on a whim. However also it really only has 12 sides. That shouldnt be alot. Its also a Flip open reload, so the shells will be seen for a considerably amount of time when pushed out of the chamber of the revolver im using it for. If i really use only 6 sides people are gonna notice how Polygonal the whole thing is.
  • EarthQuake
    Re-read what I posted dude.

    A. I said it could go as high as 16 sides, your mesh and my example clearly have 12.

    B. Segments, not sides. Again your mesh has like 15 segments, whereas my example has 5. All the little vertical indents add unneeded geometry, bake issues and overly complex uvs.

    C. Again, you could increase the sides(roundess) from 12 to 16 and reduce the overall geometry if you get rid of the excessive segments. This would help with your "waviness" problems, but viewed at a reasonable distance you would never notice it, so its not entirely necessary.

    Take a minute to study the image I posted, the differences should be clear.
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