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!!TEXTEL DENSITY PROBLEM!! PLEASE HELP ME SOLVING AND UNDERSTANDING THIS PROBLEM

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I hope you can be patient in looking at the screenshots and understanding the nature of the problem. I added titles to each screenshot to help you better understand the problem and what each screenshot refers to.

Hi everyone, first of all, I apologize for the length of this post, but I really need help as I don’t know where else to look. I’ve checked dozens of courses. I’ve been working for about a month on a huge project: a 3D model of a KSG, modeled down to every single part, with roughly 100 hours of work. I’ll also post some screenshots so u can immagine how much work i have to do.

My workflow is this: blender (hp-lp-mp) marmoset for baking, substance for texturing, marmoset and blender for rendering, ph for postprocessing.

I’ve reached the texturing stage and decided to start with the EOTech holo sight. I’ve tried hundreds of things over the past few days, and despite having a perfect UV map, using Packmaster 3 for packing into a 4k texture, applying the TD Checker, adjusting scales, checking normals, hard edges, seams, materials, and naming of every single piece perfectly, I still face an issue. On substance painter the td checker says the td is low, my model is orange.

In UVPM3, I used several combinations of options, and these should be the best ones or at least the same options I’ve used for other models in the past. I also tried exporting the model with Blender scale set to 10.0, 0.01, or 0.1, but got the same result. I double-checked multiple times with the Texel Density plugin, and it has always been 130 px/cm, so it should be more than fine. But in Substance, it seems the opposite.

When I go into Marmoset to bake everything, the baking works fine. But when I start texturing on Painter, apply the textures, and use the TD Checker generator, the model appears orange/red (low TD). I’ve tried everything: changing the model scale, Blender scale, different units, all export options in every possible combination. Nothing works. The model still seems to have a low TD.

It feels absurd that a model roughly 9 cm in size would need UDIMs. I actually tried with 3 UDIMs, and the color became “green,” which isn’t optimal TD, just medium.

I’d like to ask three things to finally understand how to handle a workflow like this:

  1. For a model like this, intended for hero shots at a relatively close distance (not sure if they count as macro, but I want individual metal scratches to be visible), do I need UDIMs?

  2. What are the best export options to go from Blender to Marmoset and then to Substance Painter?

  3. Is the TD color acceptable for what I need to do?

I’ve really ensured the model is at the ideal size, using ChatGPT and various forums to understand the scale Substance recognizes, but nothing works. The Blender scene scale is 1.000000 and set to CM. In Substance, I use the default settings and the FBX model size.

I’ll post screenshots of everything I mentioned so you can check if the workflow is correct. I apologize again for the long post, but I really need help, especially considering I still have a lot of work ahead. Thanks in advance, and I’m also new to the forum.

 

Replies

  • sacboi
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    sacboi veteran polycounter
    Curious if the sight's 9cm scale is correct when calibrated against the overall weapon OEM dimensions because barrel length alone is 47cm?
  • Polahh
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Well, without getting into all the technicalities of the various software, specialty addons for Substance Painter, and nonsense regurgitated by ChatGPT ... it looks alot like the UVs on this sight are currently in an unacceptable state. So addressing that first would be a good idea especially if the goal is to have a convincing portfolio piece.

    But besides that, what is this model actually intended for ? It seems to be in somewhat of a weird spot specs-wise. This level of detail doesn't seem fitting for game-style baking from high to low, as the whole thing looks more like something intended for an animated infographic or some training/simulation environment (hence with regular dense geometry as opposed to high-to-low baking).
  • Sempoo
    One thing worth mentioning: Texel density directly depends on a given camera and its resolution in a final render.
  • sacboi
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    sacboi veteran polycounter
    I'd suggest running a test, now firstly afaik (learning the hard way!) material resolution changes across apps e.g. DCC -> painter -> baker...well usually and because I work with large assets, for instance vehicles in that I'm used to dealing with real world scale in meters which always remain consistent, so re-reading the OP + settings I gather this object was baked in world space? from high to low then upres'd too medium (mid poly) probably explains higher than typical mesh density. Anyway if not already done so previously I'd recommend changing TD from 130px/cm  ²  256px/cm and see if this helps any?
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