Missing link in zbrush to game model workflow

[system]

Hey Guys,

I need the help of this community to get me over a hurdle I am having.

I’m at a point where I am pulling my hair out. I have scoured the net and this forum in search of the steps following a retopology to game ready model.

Here is my situation,

I have used DynaMesh to create a model. After that I have subdivided it one division further and poly painted it to my liking.

After that I retopoligized it to a game res model and UVed it using uv master to create a game res mesh with uvs.

Heres where the missing link happens,

I have two models, I have one UVed game res mesh and one high poly mesh that has been poly painted and created from DynaMesh.

I don’t know how to get the polypaint info off of the high poly model onto the uved game res mesh in the form of a texture.

I tried exporting the high res model out of zbrush to bake down the poly paint in xnormal but x normal is only baking white. I don’t think zbrush is exporting the vert color info.

Ideally after retopoligizing it I would love it if I could have one model that has the new uvs, new topology and several sub divisions with the poly painted surface.

Is it possible for me to project the polypaint and deformations from my high res mesh to my newly created UVed low poly model?

Thanks in advance,
Trevor

[holyjewsus]

in xnormal, you need to do two things, in the high poly mesh you need to uncheck ignore vertex colors, and then you need to make sure you are creating a base color map for vertex colors, not the normal texture map which will just be white…(scroll down in the maps to bake section)

[system]

in xnormal, you need to do two things, in the high poly mesh you need to uncheck ignore vertex colors, and then you need to make sure you are creating a base color map for vertex colors, not the normal texture map which will just be white…(scroll down in the maps to bake section)

Thanks holyjewsus,

That’s was my poly paint problem. I didn’t see that second check box.

[Rastaman]

Is it possible for me to project the polypaint and deformations from my high res mesh to my newly created UVed low poly model?

Trevor,

that IS the problem when you use Dynamesh.
As Dynamesh creates a completey new topology every time you remesh, you don’t have a matching low-sub-d-mesh to project your details.

What you can try is this:

Make a copy (clone) of your high detailed and polypainted Dynamesh-model.

Then there might be two ways you can go:

A) Lower the Dynamesh-resolution slider to the desired low-poly-level and do a remesh.
Now you have a low-poly-dynamesh. In case you need quads, retopo this low-poly dynamesh into a usual quad-mesh and give it a UV-layout.
Then you can use that low-poly-Mesh as a base for the usual retopo and detail-transfer.

B) Use decimation master to create a low-poly-mesh that better matches your high detailed dynamesh work without loosing much details.

So, detail transfer to a low-poly version is not the problem.

The problem goes with the polypaint.
You can create a GUV-tiles UV-map with your dynemash-work to get the polypaint into a GUV-map and so out of ZBrush, but there is currently no official way (so far I know) to get a color-transfer from dynamesh to the low-res version.

But I found a way that might work for you.
Try this:

1. Create a clone of your polypainted dynamesh.
2. Use decimation master on the clone to create a low-poly-version of your work. Your Polypaint will be lost, but we will recover it.
3. Create a UV-layout of your choice on the decimated mesh (UV-master within ZBrush or else)
4. copy the UV’s with UV-master (ZPlugin)
5. Make your polypainted dynamesh the active tool, open the Tool -> UV-Map rollout, put the UV map-size-slider to 4096 or higher and paste the UV-set with UV-master on it.

ZBrush will now show boxes that the transfer does not work and bla-bla-bla, but if you now see an active ‘Delete UV’-button in the Tool -> UV-Map rollout, the transfer has happened despite what Zbrush told you.
In that case, you can

6. open the Tool -> Texture map rollout and hit 'New from polypaint.

Maybe there are distorsions you have to adjust or try again with a higher UV-map-size

7. Now, with an active UV-texture on your dynamesh, use again decimation master on your dynamesh with the settings you used on the clone and now you’ll have again the detailed low-poly mesh, but now with the color-map and UV’s.

Good luck.