Character model problems with seams and normals

Unity Engine
1

I guys, I am working on a project that is running into a few snags. Hopefully some of you can help me out with your wisdom that you have acquired over the years.

So what am I trying to do?

I have a human character that I have modeled that I want to bring into Unity and apply to our game. The way the Coders have set it up they need 1st and 3rd person and while doing 1st person they need to remove the head or make that specific part of the character invisible for the players view (multiplayer game) because the camera sits where the head is… Everyone else will see the full model. The problem we are having seems to be with the seem created on the character around the neck where we split the model up. This is clearly a Normals issue when it comes to the model. If I import the fbx into maya I can easily hit average normals and the two parts look seamless. However when I export that model again it has the same issue as before. I do not know why I am getting this issue. Even when working inside of Substance painter for the texturing I do not have any seams visible on the model and it looks fine.

I have seen how artists set up Characters and they always have the body on one texture map and the face on another map. I had suggested using UV sets for this and keeping the body welded together however the Coders have told me that you can not work with UV sets inside of Unity to apply multiple shaders to one model.

In Close I have a model that I made with basically two UV sets the body and the head. When I exported the model into Unity around the neck there is a very serious normals seam. Ill be honest Im a bit turned around on this and havent found a way to resolve it.

2

I would say the coders are incorrect but most games have a semi-unique setup so depending upon the games setup - this might be true to your specific game - not Unity entirely.
Mixamo created a mask layer based on UVs that turned the base body mesh invisible to keep from skin mesh from poking through clothing mesh - so Unity DOES allow different shaders to be applied to different UV shells.

Commonly the face UV shell is different for resolution purposes but is probably used for other reasons also.

There are several techniques to accomplish this. The designer/lead coder needs to provide a solution to the artist so the artist can perform the work. The solution should be a team effort to find a custom solution that works for the game.

The solution Ive created content for is having two models that are always in sync. One model is for the FPS player and the other is for other players to see, the full body model. However Ive not worked on a first person game for several years.

Hope you and your team come up with a solid solution.