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MightyBake Tool Announce

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  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Some feature requests.

    1. Low to low baking does not appear to work, I get shading artifacts when plugging the low into both fields, mostly I only care about this working for material id maps, but AO and other map type would be cool.

    2. Can you speed up the Maya low export button, we were exporting some vista terrain and the export not that fast. I think it slows down the more polygons you through at it.

    3. I'd still really like a way to bake surface normals so there is no skewing + plus allow me to have hard edges in my low poly without the normals looking weird where the hard edges are.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @malcolm -
    - I will make it so that if there is no high poly, it will use the low poly surface. Is that ok?
    - I can optimze the script, but without writing a plug-in, it may not get much faster. I can look into writing a plug-in soon, maybe a month or so.
    - I have been trying some experiments locally, but I can't get anything that I think is good enough yet. I will post when I have some better progress.
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Yeah for the low to low bake that sounds awesome actually.
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Hey polycount and MightyBake, for fun this weekend I created a video tutorial series showing how to use MightyBake with Maya. I've uploaded a four part tutorial onto youtube to help people learn the software.

    Topics covered include:
    -Overview of what the software does.
    -Unique features.
    -How to use the interface.
    -How to bake maps and iterate.

    Please take a look, always wanted to make a video for youtube. And if anyone every wanted to know what my voice sounds like you will get that too.
    Software used to create the video was Bandicam to record the screen and audio with after market Lagarith Codec lossless capture, AVS Video Editor to stitch the clips together and render the final output in 1080p.

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAUgGUDpaMEP_4-9XprjMM1w7quKi6Ih9
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @malcolm - wow, I am blown away. Those tutorials are fantastic. Would you mind if I featured them on the start post for this thread? Would you mind if i directed people to the from our website? You cover the whole UI!! Let me know if there is anything we can do for you.

    The people on this forum are amazing.
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Yep, go for it I made the tutorials to help others. Thanks for making a great piece of software, it is saving lives daily at work.

    I'm patiently waiting for low to low baking and also if you can solve the issue of using surface normals with hard edges in the low poly that would be awesome.
  • RILKE
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    RILKE polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks for the video tutorials very handy ^^
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Right on, glad you liked it.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Hi Polycount,

    Mightybake 1.4.1 has just been released. You can download it here.

    Version 1.4.1 - Apr 25 2015

    (Feature) Added license server for studios to host their own licenses if needed
    (Feature) Added low to low transfer baking if no high res model is selected
    (Feature) Individual licenses now can be activated on two machines
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    This is great thanks, material id maps from low poly only is great. But the dilation does not seem to work for the layers id maps. Only for the combined id map.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks Malcolm. That is by design. That allows the edges of the layers to be properly anti-aliased, so when you use them in a compositor, they add to the correct value.
  • schmaled
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    schmaled polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Rob,

    Just tested the fixes you put in 1.4.2, everything is up and running. Thanks for the quick turn-around.

    I'll test with your suggested settings for Unity 5:
    'If you use 'FBX Tangents' in mighty bake, and set the mesh to 'import' from your game FBX, it should be fine. '

    I'll let you know if I see any weirdness there.

    Thanks Again!
  • MooseCommander
    So I'm a little late in seeing this, sorry if these questions have been asked before, but I'm curious for some insight.

    What makes this tool significantly better than say, xNormal or the Substance Baking Tools? Considering xNormal is free, and the Substance stuff is a nice feature of Substance, what are the unique benefits of MightyBake that makes it a better workflow?

    I don't mean to sound rude if I am, as I'm interested in what makes this software special and worth the cost. :)
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Hey Moose, quick rundown since I've been using this tool for a while now.

    1. Fastest baker on the market, faster than all others, I think even the new knald is slower for normal and ao.

    2. Cage and low poly do not need to match concerning verts, or uv's.

    3. Can bake Maya and UE4 tangents, to my knowledge this is the only baker on the market where you can preview your mesh in Maya. There are other tangents as well, it's like handplane is built right into the baker.

    4. No need to triangulate your mesh, so what you have in Maya is what you send to MightyBake, ngons, tris, and quads all bake perfectly.

    5. Geo normal and surface normal bake methods like Maya, with, or without a cage.

    6. Really nice user interface, can save presets for different bakes as well, can also bake multiple maps at the same time, even multiple normal maps with different tangent spaces.

    8. Multiple separate meshes are supported for high poly and low poly, so you don't have to combine your mesh before baking, also don't need to save separate scene files.

    9. Support for 8,16,32bit images.

    10. Object space normal maps at no extra bake time.

    In short it's basically handplane + xnormal, but faster with a better interface. I have some tutorial videos below if you'd like to learn more about the software. And as stated above if you care about your normal maps looking correct in the Maya viewport or Unreal 4 this is the easiest fastest route to take. I've heard it's possible to bake a clean UE4 map in xNormal, but I've never got it to work, and pretriangulation isn't an option for me at home or at work so if that is the solution to correct bakes in UE4 that won't work for us.

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAUgGUDpaMEP_4-9XprjMM1w7quKi6Ih9
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Hi folks,

    We just released a small update to fix a maya 2014 issue. Version 1.4.2 has been released at www.mightybake.com/demo.

    - (Fix) work around for maya 2014 fbx crash
    - (Fix) fixed 3ds max crash on importing mesh with no materials
    - (Feature) added faster update for the render window

    Rob
    MightyBake developer
  • Xizu
    RrmxzSC.jpg

    Hmm, is my computer too old? I have a HD4870X2 GPU. Seems to be an OpenGL error.
  • MichaelF
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    MichaelF polycounter lvl 11
    This looks crazy awesome. gotta try it out for my next project :)

    just curious, how does it compare to the substance baker? (it was my plan to use that on my next project, but MightyBake caught my attention)
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @xizu - thanks for posting the crash. MightyBake currently requires OpenGL 3 or higher. It also requires a GPU that supports 32 bit floating point frame buffers. Your GPU may be too old. I'll add better checks for that in the future so it won't crash on you. Out of curiosity, would you mind posting your machine specs?
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @MichaelF thanks for checking us out! We have focused on streamlining the workflow to reduce your time spent fiddling with the baking process. Our baker is designed to streamline the baking workflow into a game engine. MightyBake can bake normal maps into multiple tangent spaces for unreal, mikkt, maya and others, so there is no need to use a second package. It can also bake a variety of other maps, including AO, height, etc, similar to other packages. You don't have to triangulate the models, or match the envelope, or merge your meshes, we take care of all of that.

    We have also aimed to make the fastest and most robust baker on the market. On our test machines, we have baked models with over 40M triangles. We have done tests to make sure we were faster than several other packages, but I would encourage people to try it and post the comparison. I haven't tested against substance, but I will do that and if we are slower, I'll work at it until it's faster.

    Rob
  • Xizu
    According to a program called OpenGL Extensions Viewer (http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/), the GPU should fully support all extensions up to and including OpenGL 3.3. I can't find much information about the frame buffer thing, is that also an OpenGL feature? I could post you the XML report from the program if that would help.

    As to the rest of the configuration it is as follows:
    -Intel Core2Quad Q6600
    -2 GB RAM (was 4GB but sadly lost 2GB in a thunderstorm a few days ago)
    -Gigabyte X48 motherboard
    -64 bit Windows 7

    Anyway - not to clog the thread up further, if it's unsupported what can you do. I'll stick with Xnormal until I can upgrade.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @Xizu thanks for posting your specs. It should work. Let me do some research and I'll see if we can get you up and running. Feel free to e-mail me at info@mightybake.com if you want more help.

    Rob
  • MeshMagnet
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    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    I haven't read through this thread, sorry if this has already been answered...

    Can we bake out Curvature, Thickness, Cavity and Directional maps with MightyBake?

    If not, will that be in a future release?
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @MeshMagnet - at the moment no. I am working on curvature maps right now. I could probably get the thickness and cavity maps up and running faster but curvature maps seem to be more in demand, do you have a priority?

    Also, what do you mean by direction maps?
  • MeshMagnet
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    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    @mightybake - As far as priority, curvature maps would take the lead.

    I think I meant position map, not direction, or maybe they're the same thing... I'm currently using Substance Painter for texturing and I've seen a slot for a position map. That's why I was inquiring about that... (I've seen a checkbox in XNormal for Direction maps, but no checkbox for Position maps...)

    Anyway, I usually find myself baking out certain maps in different programs to get the desired results. It'd be nice if it was all consolidated down to one baker.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Position map is easy. I can quickly throw that in. Is it world space position? Or do you have an example of what output you'd like to see?
  • Leksey
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    Leksey polycounter lvl 6
    Hello.

    Like the standard Maya transfer normal map, but it creates a visible artifacts.

    I used MightyBake tool in the work and got the artifacts on the surface.

    Maya Transfer:
    1024X1024
    Sampling quality: Low (2x2) \\ if the increase is not affected.
    File format: TGA, TIFF...

    MightyBake (treal)
    1024X1024
    Sampling quality: (1x1)
    Blur: (None)
    File format: TIFF (16-bit)
  • Leksey
  • MeshMagnet
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    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    @mightybaked - World space position.
  • MeshMagnet
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    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    Almost forgot, could you throw in a height map option as well?

    *Edit; just read over the features again.. looks like you got it already. :)
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Leksey - thanks for posting the files. I'll look at the, soon and see if I can figure out what's happening.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @meshmagnet - MightyBake can bake height (world space distance) and displacement (normalized distance) maps. I'll add position maps to the next release.
  • iinewmanii
    Can't get the program to work. Crashes everytime I try to bake something.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @linewmanill - I'm sorry to hear that. Are you running on Mac or PC? Are you using Maya or Max? If you're comfortable with it, you could post the files and I'll see if can figure out the crash.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @Leksey I've baked your objects a few times and here's a few notes

    1) Have you installed the mighty bake shelf for maya? If you use it to export the low, you will get rid of the subtle cross within the sunken shape.
    2) Are you baking 16-bit? 8-bit maps (which Maya uses for their viewport) will have artifacting like you have depending on how it's converted to 8-bit. I looked at the raw 16-bit bakes and they don't have those artifacts. 8-bits may not have enough precision to give you a perfect gradual surface.

    Below is an image that shows the 8-bit vs 16-bit with the contrast cranked.

    mb_8bit_banding.png
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    Hi Polycounters,

    This is Rob with another MIghtyBake release, version 1.4.3.

    We've added in curvature maps (including convexity and concavity). They are 3D mesh based curvature, so they get full 3D curvature. Below are some images of the new maps.

    Curvature
    curvature.jpg
    Concavity
    concavity.jpg
    Convexity
    convexity.jpg
  • gloriousczar
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    gloriousczar polycounter lvl 6
    Awesome! This was baked with the surface closest option eh?

    I have a couple more feature requests:

    Could you choose to have channel packed curvature or 3 individual channels, instead of doing all 3 at once? I'm thinking you'd probably only need one or the other.

    When baking a normal map, could I have the option of having the gutter areas be 128 128 255 instead of a 50 % gray? I find I usually am just painting over the gray with a flat normal map colour anyway.

    A while back I asked about having Mightybake smooth your high poly mesh for you so you don't have to export a million+ poly mesh, is it possible to also have crease support from Maya? And a slider to choose your subdivision level for your high poly. I usually smooth my mesh either 2 or 4 times depending on if I'm using creases.

    The curvature baking is sweet though! I like that the map is 16 bit so you can the use levels on the map to get a lot of range from the bake.
  • schmaled
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    schmaled polycounter lvl 10
    Hey Rob,

    I was hoping you could move the Geometry and Surface normal option into the individual maps so I can bake both at the same time.

    I always bake both, so it would save me a step for every bake I do.

    Thanks!
  • MichaelF
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    MichaelF polycounter lvl 11
    So, i bought the app, and it seems really good.
    One thing i would like to have, is the option to translate my high res mesh, so I can have my "highres_1" in x: 0 and my "highres_2" in x: 100

    that's usually how i split up my meshes for bake. sometimes its a hassle to translate the high res inside zBrush, and its always a hassle to do it inside maya (depending on the res of the mesh)
  • MichaelF
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    MichaelF polycounter lvl 11
    Also, im missing a way to bake the material id from the low poly?
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Just untick the high poly tick box, that will bake low to low.
  • MichaelF
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    MichaelF polycounter lvl 11
    Yes! that did it, thank you :)
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @schmaled - Let me think about how to get both projections in there. That setting applies to every single map. Having it in one place helps people match up their maps. I'll see if I can figure out a way you can bake out both maps.
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @gloriousczar - There's a channel packed version that is automatically generated with the bake. Does it do what you want?

    I will log the bug that the background colour is wrong for tangent normal maps.
  • phaedarus
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    phaedarus polycounter lvl 10
    This is a cool piece of software, especially in light of the fact that Mac OSX has no Xnormal equivalent.

    Is there any possibility of Mightbake also supporting Cinema4D directly?
  • mightybake
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    mightybake polycounter lvl 5
    @phaedarus Thank you! Do you mean inside the package or the file format?
  • phaedarus
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    phaedarus polycounter lvl 10
    I mean in the same way the package is able to readily accommodate Maya users. You can preview the results within Maya. Would be great to see something similar for C4D.
  • MichaelF
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    MichaelF polycounter lvl 11
    Is the mightybake servers down? i can't get into mightybake.com and my license wont activate :S
  • RILKE
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    RILKE polycounter lvl 12
    Same thing here: no licence found, demo expired.
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    Why this domain has been suspended
    Email address has not been verified.

    this is unfortunate :/
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    I'm having the same problem too.
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