I have one Tool loaded. Multi Map Exporter creates 3 Normal Maps …-NM001.tif, …-NM002.tif, …-NM003.tif. Why?
Only the first one shows what I sculpted.
But there are also some large sharp polygonal areas, which I did not create.
Yes, I am using an imported UV map. But I have only one tool and one UV map.
I would guess that your UV map extends beyond the 0-1 boundaries. MME is therefore reading it as three UV tiles.
When creating UVs you should make sure that they don’t go right to the edge of the UV space. If they do, overlapping can occur. You can check this by pressing Tool>Texture Map>New from UV Check. A UV problem will be shown as red.
Ah. That may be it. Thanks. I will check.
Yes, that was it. Also the polygonal shapes are gone. Thank you!
Ok, so the only way to get ZB to use multiple uv quadrants is to use the multimap exporter?
If each UV tile is a separate polygroup you can use mesh visibility to isolate the polygroup and generate a map.
You can use ‘Autogroups with UV’ to create polygroups based on the UVs.
Followed this thread from the MME thread/FAQ and it is right on the money, but I need a bit more help =/
I have already made several textures for my model (not foreseeing the problem, as my uvmapping programs usually alert me of this issue, this time they did NOT), and need to extract them. My problem is that the model was already uvmapped and was split into its overlapping tiles. Usually, I will just use the MME w/ the split groups and extract my tiles that way, but this model has the poly out of bounds issue, and I don’t know what to do to fix it so I can get my separate 4096x4096 tiles from the 1 model. I mapped/grouped it to have 4 tiles, and want them rendered large.
How would I have ZBrush correct the out of bounds problem, and then split the model into its corresponding groups/tiles so I can have my 4 4096x4096 maps?
Please explain the process slow for me… For instance:
- tool>uv map>delete uv
- tool>texture map> clone txtr
When written like this, it explains things in a way I understand. So long as I know what button to click and in what order, I should be ok. I’m sure this is a simple solution, but I haven’t figured out the process and could really use some help. I want to save my textures if possible, but don’t know how to correct the 3 map/poly out of bounds issue. I would rather not have to ditch my uvmapping, I have made other textures for it in another application, and those render very well. There really wasn’t any warning that something would be wrong w/ the mapping, I was shocked that the MME rendered weird maps =/
Any help or advice would be immensely appreciated =)
MatCreator,
The out-of-bounds issue is not something that can be fixed in ZBrush. The problem arises when a UV coordinate is exactly on the tile border - ZBrush has no way of telling which tile you intend the point to be in. The only way to fix this is to scale down your UVs slightly but this has to be done in your UV editor.
ZBrush’s handling of UV tiles is limited but you can check to see if problems are likely by pressing Tool>Texture Map>New From UV Check. You are certain to get some red areas because the UV tiles are one on top of the other. What to look for is lines across the map as indicated by the red arrows in the image. This shows where the texture is wrapping because of points on the UV border.
OK, I can fix the UV problem outside of ZBrush, but is it possible to set my current textures onto the new model w/ fixed uv mapping? It’s that I am desperately trying to save the textures I already made in ZBrush.
I trusted the mapping in my other programs, it’s upsetting and disturbing that what I did in them doesn’t translate to ZBrush correctly, even if I had checked the uv mapping for ZBrushes purposes before I started, it would have been too late, I already have other textures for the model. Changing the UV’s now would be devastating =/
Any ideas to salvage my textures?
One more thing (since I have your attention), somewhat off topic but related to the MME workflow…
My groups split button is always greyed out. I learned to duplicate the model, then delete the dupe, THEN the groups split button becomes active and I can use it. Am I doing something wrong, why isn’t the button active by default?
If the maps display ok in ZBrush then you could use this method:
- Load your model (with the old UVs) into ZBrush.
- Switch to the highest subdivision. You’ll need to have a sufficient number of polygons to support the texture map detail as polypaint.
- Press Tool>POlypaint>Polypaint from Texture.
- Go to the lowest subdivison level and import an OBJ with the new UVs.
- Makes sure Tool>UV Map> UV Map Size is set to the size of map you want. Also make sure RGB is on and RGB Intensity set to 100.
- At the highest subdivision level press Tool>Texture Map>New From Polypaint.
As for the Groups Split button, I can’t think why it should be greyed out in this case. For some tools it will be greyed out, such as the primitives or zspheres, but it should always be available for polymeshes.
My most sincere apologies for not responding sooner…
I am trying to do as you say, but ZBrush will not let me perform the 3rd step, as the button is greyed out. I can’t think of why, and tried a few things to see if it would become enabled, but it won’t.
I would REALLY like to lockdown this here technique, seems crucial on many levels.
Did you assign a texture map to your model? The Tool>Polypaint>Polypaint from Texture button will only be available if :
a) your model has UVs
b) you have pressed the Tool>Texture Map thumbnail and selected an image from the pop-up so that it is displayed on your model.
Note that if your model has multiple UVs you will need to use polygroup visibility to be able to correctly display a texture map (or create one from polypaint):
- Shift+Ctrl+click on a polygroup so that just that group is visible.
- Do stuff. For example, create a texture map from polypaint or alternatively put a map on the model and convert it to polypaint.
- Then Shift+Ctrl+click on the background to show the whole model before repeating the process on the next group.