Unity 5 Tangent space appears to have changed!

Unity Engine
1

Hey Guys thought I would post this here considering I sent out an email with no reponse

It appears Unity 5 beta 18 has different Unity Tangent Space normals making it impossible to author content in a 100% synced capacity. Attached are Unity packages I created with several different Unity builds ranging from Unity 4.5.1f3, Unity 5 beta 15 and Unity 5 beta 18. The only shader that currently supports a synced workflow in Unity 5 is the Legacy/Diffuse, Normal shader. The Legacy shader only is 100% synced if a World Space Normal/ Object Space Normal is authored in Xnormal or Substance designer then the Tangent is created within Handplane. This is a concerning because I was under the impression Xnormal supported a synced workflow if you used UnityTSpace calculator and Substance Designer by its nature exports in UnityTspace out of the box.

Below are some images to illustrate what I’m seeing.
This is unity 4.5.1 f3 and you can see the only shader working “Correctly” was created with Handplane even though the other normals were created with Xnormal and Substance Designer

1898329--122316--Unity4.5.1f3_Tspace_Test.PNG.jpg
1898329--122316--Unity4.5.1f3_Tspace_Test.PNG.jpg1723Ă—991 92.3 KB

Unity 5 Beta15
These are using the same textures, the only difference is the shader is no longer legacy but is Standard. None of the normals are “Correct”

1898329--122319--Unity5Beta15_Tspace_Test.PNG.jpg
1898329--122319--Unity5Beta15_Tspace_Test.PNG.jpg1747Ă—956 167 KB

Unity 5 Beta 18
This image is using legacy shaders and the only normals that work are from Handplane just like in Unity 4.5.1f3

1898329--122318--Unity5_Beta15_LegacyShaders_UnityTspace.PNG.jpg
1898329--122318--Unity5_Beta15_LegacyShaders_UnityTspace.PNG.jpg1681Ă—802 138 KB

Unity 5 Beta 18
Same textures as before but are now using Standard shader. None of the Materials are correct. This has been tested using Standard Metal and Spec/Gloss

1898329--122317--Unity5_Beta15_StandardShaders_UnityTspace.PNG.jpg
1898329--122317--Unity5_Beta15_StandardShaders_UnityTspace.PNG.jpg1656Ă—884 149 KB

Packages can be found here:
Unity 5 Beta18:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0l0iahtu11zim5/Unity5_Beta18_TSpace_Test.rar?dl=0

Unity 5 Beta 15:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nogosiyovysw7uz/Unity5_Beta15_TSpace_Test.rar?dl=0

Unity 4.5.1f3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sb3vpsif2m8vd6n/Unity4.5.1f3_TSpace_Test.rar?dl=0

Let me know if you have any more questions. I would really like to figure this out. I wanted to point out my import settings for Unity fbx are the following.

2

I’d really like more info from the devs on this. So at the very least we can bug the author of handplane to update it :smile:

3

If at all possible I would like to find a way to resolve the tangent space change for Substance Designer/Painter and Xnormal too.

4

Any news?

5

Hi! We have created a bug report on this and rest assured that this issue is high on our list. Case number is 661745.

2 Likes
6

Hi,
Handplane co-owner here looking into unity 5 stuff for my own projects. If unity ends up with a modified tangent space/normals rending can you email me documentation for it? alecmoody@gmail.com

7

Looks like there was a Shader update so Tangent Space syncs correctly with normals created with Handplane again. Which is great news!!! Now who do I need to talk to about getting updated DLL files for Xnormal and Substance Designer?

1963007--127074--TangentSpace Update.PNG
1963007--127074--TangentSpace Update.PNG1204Ă—600 149 KB

8

We have fixed an issue in RC2 where tangent space was different from tangent space in 4.6.

9

As Joachim has mentioned Tangent Space appears to be fixed. You can create synced content again if you use Substance designer, Handplane and Xnormal provided you use the UnityTspace.DLL from this link http://www.farfarer.com/blog/2012/06/12/unity3d-tangent-basis-plugin-xnormal/