3dsmax noise in normal maps
polycounter lvl 7
Hello,
I've been messing about with 3dsmax and baking normal maps, but they always seem to have too much noise on them, and it becomes really noticeable when trying to make a glossy object (like chromed metal).
When i save in .tga or .tif, there is an almost unacceptable amount of noise, but if i save in .dds there is no noise, yet there are some strange artifacts.
I've provided a screenshot of the issue, rendered in quixel.
The 3dsmax render setup is: Enable SSE checked, Antialiasing checked, Filter Maps checked, Filter: Catmul Rom, Super sampler: Hammersley, Quality 1.0, Super sample maps checked.
3dsmax Projection options are: Method Raytrace, use cage checked, Resolve hit furthest, Normal Map Space: Tangent
http://i.imgur.com/jWjSNtt.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/70f1ptgb2zs91k4/LP_BladeNormalsMap.tga?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/votedn8g5pitxrw/LP_BladeNormalsMap.tiff?dl=0
I've been messing about with 3dsmax and baking normal maps, but they always seem to have too much noise on them, and it becomes really noticeable when trying to make a glossy object (like chromed metal).
When i save in .tga or .tif, there is an almost unacceptable amount of noise, but if i save in .dds there is no noise, yet there are some strange artifacts.
I've provided a screenshot of the issue, rendered in quixel.
The 3dsmax render setup is: Enable SSE checked, Antialiasing checked, Filter Maps checked, Filter: Catmul Rom, Super sampler: Hammersley, Quality 1.0, Super sample maps checked.
3dsmax Projection options are: Method Raytrace, use cage checked, Resolve hit furthest, Normal Map Space: Tangent
http://i.imgur.com/jWjSNtt.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/70f1ptgb2zs91k4/LP_BladeNormalsMap.tga?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/votedn8g5pitxrw/LP_BladeNormalsMap.tiff?dl=0
Replies
create a new tga file with a solid color of r128, g128, b255 and use this instead of your baked normalmap. Is the Noise still there.
I've checked your normalmap tga and I can't see any noise in there. Do you see noise in the texture itself?
I have the feeling it could be an issue on the shader side. But not sure. The plain color normalmap should rule out the texture or not.
using what you said, there is has no noise, and textures baked in xnormal also do not, but i'd like to bake in 3dsmax.
if you click with the photoshop magic wand with the tolerance being 0, and contiguous is clicked off, you'll see that the entire map is covered by tiny dots, it's easier to see in the .tiff.
I'm guessing it looks horrible when rendered because of those almost invisible dots.
Tried both compressed and uncompressed, the issue remains.
I'm using the default scanline renderer, and Nitrous driver as the display driver.
You can use a 16bit map to reduce it, but most engines do not support 16 bit normal maps due to the high memory cost.
If using a higher bit rate is not changing the effect it might still be related to max.
in xnormal i get the banding, but this amount of noise doesn't seem preferable, when trying to make something that is going to be a reflective/glossy surface, well to me at least.
if i save in .dds theres no noise, at least not as much noise, but it always has some artifacting
ive tried all the options for both .tiff and tga, and no change.
.dds im saving A8 R8 B8 G8
I think you can also bake it at twice the size and then do the above process for extreme dithering.
.DDS means compression, so typically your image will be compressed into large blocks of information, so yeah there might be less noise but only because there is less detail due to lossy compression.
It's certainly possible that something is wrong with the settings in Max, but Max does a very good job of dithering.
Should i just try nuking the user document for 3dsmax then?