Visible Normal Seams when Baking? How to fix that

TirvasFreeze · May 2020

Hello,

Im actually so confussed because i always have that problem and i have no clue why that is happening and how to fix it i really hope you can help me with this i have baked my Low Poly with my High Poly in Substance and no matter what Mesh i use i always have these Problems..

PS:

I suck at UV's so have mercy with me

Issue in Substance:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/j3/s97p16m42b9e.png

LowPoly-Mesh:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/tz/p3irca3ckt3u.png

UV's:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/rf/m3k4pm8lf2i2.png

rollin · May 2020

The reason you probably don't get a response is because this is basics stuff.
And because you probably haven't searched first

FrankPolygon · May 2020

The entire low poly mesh is using hard edges and the normal artifacts appear around the perimeter of most faces. Bright normal map seams that follow existing edge geometry are generated by blending extreme pixel values from either side of a given edge. This type of normal map baking error is indicative of UV padding issues caused by mismatched hard edges and UV splits.

Here's a link to a thread in the technical section that discusses this issue in depth:

https://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts/p1

Joe Wilson's Toolbag baking tutorial covers common normal map errors:

https://marmoset.co/posts/toolbag-baking-tutorial/?page=Best Results#bestresults

It looks like you're using Blender, so here's some official documentation on how to set mesh smoothing:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/normals.html#flat

Additional documentation on UV seams and hard edges in Blender:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/edges.html?highlight=sharp edges#set-edge-attributes

One other thing to consider is further optimizing the low poly mesh by removing unnecessary edge loops and revising the placement of UV splits and hard edges. This should resolve the baking issues, improve the quality of the bake and reduce the the resource footprint of the model.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/os/exgk821t4r0s.jpg

Other recent discussions about normal mapping issues and efficent use of hard edges and Uv seams:

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2717655/#Comment_2717655

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2723853/#Comment_2723853

As rollin mentioned: though we don't start out with a great technical vocabulary, researching the relevant terms and searching for existing information can often be faster and more beneficial than having to wait for a direct answer from other artists.

The polycount wiki and technical talk section are two great resources for existing technical and troubleshooting information.

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount

https://polycount.com/categories/technical-talk

TirvasFreeze · May 2020

FrankPolygon said:

The entire low poly mesh is using hard edges and the normal artifacts appear around the perimeter of most faces. Bright normal map seams that follow existing edge geometry are generated by blending extreme pixel values from either side of a given edge. This type of normal map baking error is indicative of UV padding issues caused by mismatched hard edges and UV splits.

Here's a link to a thread in the technical section that discusses this issue in depth:
https://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts/p1

Joe Wilson's Toolbag baking tutorial covers common normal map errors:
https://marmoset.co/posts/toolbag-baking-tutorial/?page=Best Results#bestresults

It looks like you're using Blender, so here's some official documentation on how to set mesh smoothing:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/normals.html#flat

Additional documentation on UV seams and hard edges in Blender:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/edges.html?highlight=sharp edges#set-edge-attributes

One other thing to consider is further optimizing the low poly mesh by removing unnecessary edge loops and revising the placement of UV splits and hard edges. This should resolve the baking issues, improve the quality of the bake and reduce the the resource footprint of the model.

Other recent discussions about normal mapping issues and efficent use of hard edges and Uv seams:
https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2717655/#Comment_2717655
https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2723853/#Comment_2723853

As rollin mentioned: though we don't start out with a great technical vocabulary, researching the relevant terms and searching for existing information can often be faster and more beneficial than having to wait for a direct answer from other artists.

The polycount wiki and technical talk section are two great resources for existing technical and troubleshooting information.

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount
https://polycount.com/categories/technical-talk

Thank you so much for your help and your Time!

Visible Normal Seams when Baking? How to fix that

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