How to Properly create & apply a normalmap and specular? (Hard Surface Shader Free)

Questions & Answers
1

I am the programmer on a project that requires a great deal of shiny metal textures/materials. I am attempting to use the free edition of Hard Surface Shaders from the unity asset store. I am definitely a novice when it comes to materials, shaders, normalmaps, and the like. Basically I am having problems getting the applied material to look right.

Here is the 3D object before applying any normal map or reflective map:

Before

Here is the result of my attempt at applying a normal map and reflective map that was given to me by the artist on the project:

After

We spent the entirety of the day going back and forth trying to figure out what would be causing the bizarre brail like repeating pattern of the two textures on the object. I don’t know if it is something I am doing wrong in applying the textures, or if it has something to do with the textures themselves, or the import settings on either the model or the textures, or the way the FBX model was exported from 3DS Max. I do know that it is not a specific issue with the Hard Surface Shaders pack, since I am getting the same type of results from Unity’s built in bumped specular shader.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone with a little more knowledge of shaders, materials, textures, ect. could help in understanding what is being done wrong in this process to cause this, as it is a major hump in the project at the moment.

These images may help in assessing the core of the problem:

3

Issue solved!

Turns out that there were some problems with the UV settings on the model. The UVs in channel 1 were scaled and did not match the textures. The artist had used the automatic flatten UV’s function in 3DS Max’s render to texture but had set the UV map channel to 3 by accident.

So if anyone else runs into these issues, a good rule of thumb when using 3DS Max and Unity: Map Channel 1 for General UV’s, Map Channel 2 for Lightmap UV’s

A huge thank you to Bruno Rime, the creator of Hard Surface Shaders, who took the time to help us troubleshoot this issue. I highly recommend purchasing his incredible shader package.

2

First, you know how to ask a question, all details are here and it’s appreciated :slight_smile:

Now, are sure your UV are coherent with your maps ? Have you tried a simpler shader, the built-in Bump diffuse for instance ? I’ve never used those shaders, so I can’t tell you more than that.