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Max->Zbrush -> Max -> Unreal Tournament 3 normal map lightmap issues. What is wrong w

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#1

I’m working on modelling rocky island like land masses that float in the sky, for my game world environment.

First I created a low poly model in max. I unwrapped it and then exported it to Zbrush and divided it 7 times. I use the 34,000 poly model as my base mesh and project all higher detail with my normal map. I export the model back into max so I can export it into Unreal.

I figured before I spend too much time modelling detail I had better test it by importing it into my level and applying a normal map to make sure it all worked properly.

And sure enough it didn’t. :mad:

The light maps come out with drastically contrasting shadows along the UV edges.

I created a proper almost seamless tangent space normal map which seems to be perfectly ok, as you can see here I plugged the normal map into the material diffuse channel.

So I went and tried a million different things to try and fix it different settings on my static mesh on my material, different lights, object space tangent space normal maps, changing my UV unwrap, different UV resolutions. All I succeeded in doing was making it worse with directional lights.

So I went back to Max and rendered my model with the normal map and it too had the same problem.

So I went back to Zbrush and played some more with the Zmapper. Now I really have no clue how to work the Zmapper I normally just use 3 buttons and 1 slider open configuration, capture current mesh, ray casting max scan distance and create projected normal map. I found using 3DS Max7_TangentSpace_BestQualityconfiguration gave me a almost completely seamless normal map, and I am sure that a little more tweaking of settings could make it even better. However normal maps made with this configuration didn’t in any way fix or reduce my lightmap problem. (I use tangent space normal maps because I haven’t found any existing assets in the game that use object space normal maps.)

But I did discover the before opening the Max7 config that when I clicked on “tangents” under “Display” I get this…

And if I just convert that to black and white voila! It looks just like my model with its baked lightmaps.

After I load the max 7 config it all becomes seamless yet still holds no bearing on what my projected normal map will look like in the end.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

So any ideas as to the root of my problem and especially how to fix it would be much appreciated.

#2

It could be a number of things. If your NM is turning out ok. Then the next thing to check is that your diffuse map does not have any color variations when you apply it. This is to make sure that it has nothing to do with your diffuse. Also check out hourences.com for unreal tutorials. That may help. If these don’t work then let me know.

Good luck! :slight_smile:

#3

Also make sure your normal are all facing out. Sounds dumb but it’s good to rule everything out. Also when you export from zbrush make sure you go to the export options and uncheck GRP and check MRG, this makes sure the uv’s stay merged.

#4

Ok I did something (though I’m not sure what) that made my normal map work ok in max

But it still won’t work in game. I tried MRG setting with no luck

If my normals were facing the wrong way I imagine it would look like I would have cavities where there are suppose to be bumps and visa versa but that doesn’t seem to be the case at least when look at renders of it in max.

I could still work around this problem if I can figure out how create lightmaps using Max instead

#5

Another good resource for tutorials in max and unreal is waylon-art.com then click on artwork and you’ll see max and unreal tutorials. I don’t work in max so I can’t really troubleshoot it. In maya you need to make sure that you soften the edges before you bring it into unreal so you don’t have any tessellation. It looks like you are just having a problem with the border edges though. It might help if I could see your uv’s and NM layout.