Normal map crate challange - Makk

Submitted by Makk on
Forum
team threads

Here is my entry for this little challenge...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/crate_high01.jpg[/img]

The high poly is mostly finished, just got to go and get some finer detials like rivets, etc and finish off the top of it (the lid).

One of the bits I have found to be hard is generating the normal map and being able to view it in MAX7. I grabbed some shaders from Ben Clowards site so I'll see how they go

I'll be using a diffuse, spec and possibly spec colour in addition.

Submitted by Makk on Mon, 08/05/06 - 8:58 AM Permalink

Im currently up to the stage that Ive been having the most trouble with, that is rendering the normal map and displaying it in MAX7.
And whatta know I have a problem.
For some reason, shading from the low poly's smoothing is showing up in the normal map...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/nm_help.jpg[/img]

Why is this happening?

Submitted by J I Styles on Mon, 08/05/06 - 10:01 PM Permalink

First thing first - Have you checked the map on the object? If not, you may find that it's visually correct.

Depending on your low poly target, it should be right. The normal map is the resulting difference from the low poly normals to the high poly normals -- unless something's off, this should be correct.

As to why that happens, think of it as compensating for the low poly by putting opposing values to the low polys normals, therefore making it correct in comparison to the high poly source. Since it's tangent space, it's still using the base low poly's normals + the normal map to equal the final normal - another example is if you had a faceted low poly mesh ripping a smooth high poly then it'd compensate in the normal map and it'd still come out visually smooth even if you can see all the faceted crap in the normal map.

Now, that -should- be why it's happening -- if it's screwy with it applied to the low poly then there's another prob

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 08/05/06 - 10:50 PM Permalink

Yup just make sure your high poly teture isn't the same as the low poly texture. ie. make sure its just a default sphere in the materials window away from the one that the low poly is using and not a copy of the low poly texture as well ><.

Also make sure you have your low poly set to one smoothing group.

If you run the normal map on the low poly in both real time and via render, and it still does that then you will have to try and re render it using the methods mentioned already in this thread.

if it still happens post a screen of your render to texture dialog box + option and we will be able to see if its any of those that might be causeing the problem.

Posted by Makk on
Forum
team threads

Here is my entry for this little challenge...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/crate_high01.jpg[/img]

The high poly is mostly finished, just got to go and get some finer detials like rivets, etc and finish off the top of it (the lid).

One of the bits I have found to be hard is generating the normal map and being able to view it in MAX7. I grabbed some shaders from Ben Clowards site so I'll see how they go

I'll be using a diffuse, spec and possibly spec colour in addition.

Submitted by Makk on Mon, 08/05/06 - 8:58 AM Permalink

Im currently up to the stage that Ive been having the most trouble with, that is rendering the normal map and displaying it in MAX7.
And whatta know I have a problem.
For some reason, shading from the low poly's smoothing is showing up in the normal map...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/nm_help.jpg[/img]

Why is this happening?

Submitted by J I Styles on Mon, 08/05/06 - 10:01 PM Permalink

First thing first - Have you checked the map on the object? If not, you may find that it's visually correct.

Depending on your low poly target, it should be right. The normal map is the resulting difference from the low poly normals to the high poly normals -- unless something's off, this should be correct.

As to why that happens, think of it as compensating for the low poly by putting opposing values to the low polys normals, therefore making it correct in comparison to the high poly source. Since it's tangent space, it's still using the base low poly's normals + the normal map to equal the final normal - another example is if you had a faceted low poly mesh ripping a smooth high poly then it'd compensate in the normal map and it'd still come out visually smooth even if you can see all the faceted crap in the normal map.

Now, that -should- be why it's happening -- if it's screwy with it applied to the low poly then there's another prob

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 08/05/06 - 10:50 PM Permalink

Yup just make sure your high poly teture isn't the same as the low poly texture. ie. make sure its just a default sphere in the materials window away from the one that the low poly is using and not a copy of the low poly texture as well ><.

Also make sure you have your low poly set to one smoothing group.

If you run the normal map on the low poly in both real time and via render, and it still does that then you will have to try and re render it using the methods mentioned already in this thread.

if it still happens post a screen of your render to texture dialog box + option and we will be able to see if its any of those that might be causeing the problem.