ZBrushCentral

Baking Non Square images (answered)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

In my workflow, the standard methodology for rendering non-square maps using something like XSI/Max/Xnormal (1024 x 2048 in this case) is to have the body uv’s in quadrant 0-1 and the head in quadrant 1-2. Scale them on X to all fit into 0-1 and then render to a non square format. This stretches the uv’s back out during bake and the end result is a properly baked image at 1024x2048.

How do you do this in ZB??? Is there any documentation on how to bake out non-square images for normals/cavity/AO in ZB? This is a fairly common workflow for games so I know there has to be a way.

#2

There’s no direct way to do this directly in ZBrush as it only uses square maps. What you can do is use the MultiMap Exporter to export maps for each UV tile but you would need to stitch them together in Photoshop or another image editor.

#3

Thanks for the reply Marcus. Ok, so I’ve looked through the manual of multimap exporter and don’t see any reference on how to achieve the workflow you’ve described so I went about trying to figure out this workflow.

After making MANY mistakes of scaling the UV, trying to hit the 2048 button, etc etc etc i FINALLY got it figured out. It would probably be helpful if you updated the documentation to include a walk through on how to accomplish this.

Soooo, if you are one of the many people that have UV sets that exist outside of the 0-1 boundary then here is what you do.

1.Make sure your model has UV’s that are NOT scaled down to fit into 0-1.

2.Set MME map size to 1024 (in my case) so that your result will be two 1024x1024 images.

3.Create maps. You will have to put the images together in Photoshop if you are feeding your engine a non-square image and will most probably have to scale your UV’s down to fit in 0-1 space but that’s something each person will have to research.

#4

wayniac,

MME will output separate maps for each UV tile, so all you need to do is make sure (for example) the body UVs in the 0-1 space and the head in 1-2. Make sure the UVs do not extend to the full range of each space otherwise ZBrush will overlap them. If you want a final map of 1024 x 2048 you would then set the MME Map Size slider to 1024. MME would then output two maps of 1024x1024 which you would stitch in Photoshop. Doesn’t that work for you, or am I misunderstanding what you are trying to do?

Your point (2) does nothing. Setting the height and width in the Texture palette has no effect on the maps created or exported for tools. The size is set in the Tool>UV Map>UV Map Size slider (or the MME Map Size slider for a global setting).

#5

Thanks again for the reply marcus! You are quick this morning haha! I’ve edited my previous post to reflect your input.

I had the UV map at 1024 and having turned the MME to 0 defaulted to what I had believed to be was my input from the Texture menu. If I didn’t have the UV option at 1024 I would have gotten a different than expected sized map because as you say, the texture size set in the Texture menu has nothing to do with MME.

Thanks for the clarification and sorry for the noise! I hope this at least helps others who might have been having the same problem as I.

#6

Glad you’ve got it sorted. :slight_smile:

The MME Map Size slider is for when you want the maps all the same size for all the subtools. If you want different sized maps for each subtool then you can set each subtool map size in its Tool>UV Map>UV Map Size slider and then set the MME Map Size slider to 0 (disabling it).