manticor

Great release Ive noticed a bug when changing uvs on a model that has paint layers.If the uvs are changed around ,then after the rebake of the paint info of the layers the normal map displays wrong and shows seams .I looked at it and I think maybe what is happening is that the vertex normals on the mesh are getting lost when the rebake happens.

Hi Is it possible to separate unconnected voxel islands of a layer to another layer ? Cheers M

Awesome tool but there is a problem when I navigate with orbit around .If my mouse hovers over a patch while Im orbiting it moves the patch spline can you put in a disable action while navigating please

Would it be possible to generate the input curves from ambient occlusion ( for crevices) and Curvature ( peaks ) information ? then it could be a fully automated solution but with the bonus of being able to alter the input curves after the fact . I noticed that the "Load Shape" option in the E panel already has an algorithm to convert pixel brightness information to curves .Maybe this could be used to generate your curves?

From what I remember Andrew did say when he was finalising this version of autopo that he'd had an idea for a different algorythm to do autopo.Maybe sometime in the future he would implement that one.

Im thinking that the other company might be the Foundry. They are working on a non linear animation mixer for modo 901 ....maybe they are thinking ...why bother writing one when they can just buy messiah. Messiah was originally a tightly integrated lightwave plugin and modo is written by the guys who originally wrote Lightwave... But then again it might be a snake oil scam knowing fori ......And the other company is actually Unity as they have it on the asset store

Im not sure if this is possible already but a global smooth would be great . For instance for an object that has a lightmap texture but if it is noisy it would be great to do something like photoshops surface blur but on the object ... doing a straight surface blur on the lightmap texture creates errors as lightmaps usually have a lot of uv islands and blurring causes errors at the seams .blurring on the object would be ideal as it could sample adjacent polygons when blurring .

Just got this from pmg Dear messiahStudio User: Big changes are about to happen for messiahStudio and you. We have been working on a deal with a company that could change the industry, and give you an advantage as a messiahStudio user. We will be able to add more resources, improve the software, and give you a greater user experience; as well as support your projects in interesting ways. This will also mean the future cost of the product and upgrades, may not be solely under our control. You are being offered one chance to save on both current and future versions, before this happens. If you want to lock in your ability to take advantage of the current price savings, these are your last opportunities to do so. Don't say we didn't warn you MESSIAHSTUDIO 5 USERS: Upgrade to version 6, so you are not priced out of the future: $20 http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/shop_upgradeBF6.html Anyone who is not on version 6 by the time this takes places, will not be able to upgrade, and will have to pay the new prices, as if you were a new user. There will be nothing we can do to help you after that point. MESSIAHSTUDIO 6 USERS: If you want to lock in your future version price, avoid the price increase, and gain the advantages that new users will have, without paying the new user price, convert to a subscription license: You can cancel it at any time, and still run the version you have from that time forward. Your ability to run the software will not expire, only your access to new things from that point on. If you re-subscribe after that, it will be at the new price, so it's to your advantage to maintain it. This is the best deal we can give you as a current user; and soon you'll see why: $40 a year: http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/shopSUB6.html We're sorry we can't disclose any more information at this time; our plans involve other companies, so we are not at liberty to put out new information, before the appropriate time. Thanks for your understanding. We look forward to sharing with you what's in store for the future. So is the new partner possibly pilgway ? ...... as they're a perfect match and several people on the boards have talked about it in the past

softimage is the only tool program that can transfer morphs from models with different topology (using GATOR).... as far as i know

first point is already possible in 3DC select quad option and then at the top menu bar change extrusion method to direct

I dont understand the quad model tests .... as every external package may treat the quadrangulation differently when importing the model which will result different normal information on the model and then the normal maps wont display correctly. Secondly a test on only 2 different models is not really enough to determine whether the normal map is completely correct for the given platform .I tested the maya map with the first model in unity and it looks correct but its exported from 3DCoat which Im pretty sure uses Mikk TangentSpace which is not 100% correct for Unity ( I know this from experience ) a lot of the time it will shade correctly but in some instances seams will appear or the shading will be a little off. I think this was already posted a while back by Don Nash(AbnRanger) but here is the link again that explains the problems and correct working practices with normal maps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONQzKcWeMY and this is a video from the Handplane3D videos section that explains the fundamentals of normal maps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6Yu-nTbUU this is more in depth about controlling shading and efficiency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciXTyOOnBZQ This is another video showing normal maps baked in different packages displayed in Unity with different results https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWToeCw1B24 In short - for the normal maps to display correctly the model should be triangulated so the normals wont change .The external package must import model with the normal information and the correct tangent basis should be used for the external package to display it correctly. I hope this helps

Hi Andrew I have definately used it as tangent space ( option is shown on the screenshot ... although admitedly a little hard to see due to the resolution ) If the map was output as a local space normal map then it is possible to convert it to tangent space normal map using a freeware tool called handplane3D http://www.handplane3d.com/ which outputs to most major tangent space formats ( including 3DS Max's).

I already did try inverting green on test 1 for max either way they are not correct in max viewport display .Max doesnt use Mikk Tspace tangent basis as far as I know.Rendering the model also renders incorrectly using scanline or mental ray http://s14.postimg.org/v37ttlp69/Max_Viewport.jpg And as far as I know I dont think the difference between max and mayas tangent basis is just green inversion .I think there are more differences .I dont have maya here to confirm tho. Softimage XSI is also displaying wrong. Modo displays correctly using this model Also Unity does not use the Mikk tSpace tangent basis as I bake from Xnormal and I use this plugin for it when Im baking for Unity http://www.farfarer.com/blog/2012/06/12/unity3d-tangent-basis-plugin-xnormal/

Hi Andrew. Ok I started checking the test and noticed a flaw straight away in the tests. The second stage test obj is not triangulated and therefore each program will triangulate the models differently on import .Objects should always be exported triangulated if using a normal map to keep consistency. In test 1 I have found neither max nor maya's normal map looks correct in 3DS Max's viewport ( using any of the viewport settings Nitrous or Legacy ) as both have very bad visible seams. Although test1 using maya's normal map looks perfect in Unity (no visible seams at all) and test 1 using max's normal map looks perfect in Unreal Engine 4

Posting this here as well as the tangent poll thread .... Wouldn't it be a better solution to output normal maps like handplane3d does Export object space normal map and then choose one of the output options depending on target platform and convert to tangent space or even better make all variation options available and we as users can create presets with the correct output settings 2 variations of tangent basis isn't going to handle all situations Seeing as hand plane is freeware anyway ,just export world space normal maps instead and convert them using hand plane .... This is the only way I know of that guarantees perfect normals for all platforms. But if Andrew wants to put the same functionality into 3dc then that would be great .... Maybe the hand plane guys might allow their code to be added to 3dc as it is after all freeware now . http://handplane3d.com/