I have two fbx models. LowCat and HighCat. Lowcat is a lowres (decimated) version of HighCat.
I generate a normal map of HighCat and now want to apply it to lowcat in Unity3d.
I tried importing the normalmap and applying it to bumped diffuse, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.
Is this an appropriate workflow?
What am I missing?
Thanks,
Dan
I think all materials will give you a warning now, but there is a Normal Map setting in the image, you should click that for imported normal maps. Other than that, you might need to post some screens of setup.
the image is already set to normal map.
Are any steps missing from my procedure?
Also someone in another forum mentioned the lights have to be pixel lights?
Also is there a really easy way to post screenshots without doing the mac-screen shot then editing out the sides where my personal folders are?
Thanks,
Dan
Command+shift+4 I believe will allow you to drag out an area to capture.
I am failing at trying to create a normal map from two models. They are both fbx created with a decimator program. Which program should I use to create the normal map that could successfully be used by Unity3D?
So far I applying the normal maps is making the objects look extra bumpy. Is there something I should do to the models first before creating the normal maps? I know they are triangulated by the decimation program but I feel like there may be something else wrong with them.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Dan
http://www.blendercookie.com/2009/11/21/exporting-a-lowpoly-model-to-unity-3d/
it will only work if you have unwrapped the low poly model and i would not use an FBX to creat normal maps. and decimatior tools are…uhm…not that good. a great tutorial about modeling and textuering is: cgtuts+ knife series <—four parts, that are just awesome.
Could you explain more about unwrapping. I have used about 3 tools …melody, carrara baker, and maya and none of these successfully create a normal map for the low poly model. I doubt if xnormal will work where these have failed but I can try it also.
What could be wrong with the low poly model?
The output looks like cracked earth, not a smooth mesh?
Dan
Xnormal is pretty much the mutt’s nuts at producing normal maps, apart from doing it directly in something like Zbrush where you have both the low and high poly model as a subdivided version of itself. Tell us what app you used to create this model, and what steps you took to create the map. Post screenshots of both models and the normal map. Is your low-poly model too low poly? Are they too different from each other to project the detail?
A normal map is a normal map, no matter what engine or modeler you’re using it in (unless the colours are flipped or something). You can tweak the intensity of the colours in the map if it’s not prominent enough, but if you’re getting completely incorrect results then something is wrong.
There are countless tutorials on how to do it. I know nothing about Melody(?) or Carrara, but I know for a fact that Maya and surely every modern modeling app can do it, and that Xnormal is a very good way to produce them from a standalone app.
edit: the way I prefer to work, for both better results and better topology, is to create the low poly model FIRST, then subdivide it up inside something like Zbrush or whatever you’re using to sculpt or extrude your details. Decimating a mesh down is going to give you a horrible model if you’re planning to animate this, and may be part of the problems you’re having if you have a really uneven topology with stretched triangles or something.
Okay so the original model is in Daz3d. Daz3d has a decimator. The original model was 80K polygons the final one is 5K polygons.
I’m not sure what the limits of normal mapping are but the results so far look really weird. For the normal map. I have used maya’s transfer map function. The final model comes out looking like it’s baked Earth. Here is a screenshot.
Oh god, no. I’ve never had any reason to look at this, but isn’t it related to Poser? Whenever I hear either name, I think of those horrible dead-eyed naked Poser women that seem to be the only thing that people can create in this applications, other than furry stuff.
I don’t see the normal map anywhere in that screenshot, but I suspect the problem here is that you don’t need a normal map in the first place, you probably need to use smooth edges/smoothing groups/whatever it’s called in Maya these days. This will create smooth shading across those low-poly surfaces in the game engine, giving the illusion of it being higher poly. You can either set this up in Maya and import it to Unity, or just enable the smoothing option on the material in Unity. If you want to maintain smoothing angles and hard/soft edges that you’ve set up in your modeler, you’ll probably have to disable the smoothing option in Unity to preserve the normals saved in the model.
Take a look at http://www.chrisalbeluhn.com/3D_Tutorials.html. It’s not Unity specific, but read the “Complete asset creation process” guide for an example of what smoothing can do, and “Normal map creation process” for what normal maps can do. They are both related, but I think in this case you just want smooth shading on your low poly model, as you don’t seem to be trying to project details onto it, just smooth it out.
I actually want to it to fill in details, that were lost during the decimation.
So normal maps will not work if the low polygon model gets too blocky?
I was hoping this workflow would work but it doesn’t seem to in any system.
I can’t really smooth the polygons in daz3d unless I can move it to another system like maya.
I really don’t know maya that well. Is it possible that if I smooth out the low polygon model
that it will work? Or is it still a far fetched idea because the faces are too irregular in the low polygon model?
Dan
Do yourself a favour and de-install Daz and the cracked version of Maya. Get blender, use google to find and watch tutorials about polygon modelling, texture/normal-map baking and normal-map tweaking.
for your “blocky” model, you have no smoothing groups on it.