Trismegistus

I finally got this to work. I'm not sure what did it. I updated the latest build and I made the internal scan about 5 and the external scan 2. It's not a perfect normal map, but it's much better than it was and I think I can play with the settings until it's optimized. Thanks for the help.

I made a new low poly with a few more polygons. Now I get a somewhat better normal map. But it seems like it is 'inverted.' I'm not sure how I got this. I actually made two versions of the high polygon model (voxelized), one 'clean' and one with wear and tear.

Thanks, Digman. It's gonna take me some time to decode your replies--not because there's any problem with them, but I don't catch things quickly. Thanks again.

Thanks for your reply. Here are the files. Romanesque Arch Basic.obj RA_Cage.obj

Thanks for the replies and sorry for my slow response. I have baked normal maps three times in 3DC, so my experience is limited. The first time was on a model that I had created in the voxel room and then retopo'ed in 3DCoat 4.7.06 (OGL) which is what I am using. I thought the normal map was pretty faithful to the model I created. I even textured the model in 3D Coat. This encouraged me to do more normal map baking in the quest of low polygons. Then I decided I wanted to have a low-poly model of a Romanesque Arch that I modeled in 3DS Max, but baked with the normal map detail of the high poly model. I modeled the high and the low polygon meshes in Max. They are both uv-mapped very differently. Then I imported them into 3DC. I did this in the retopo 'room' through File --> Import Retopo Mesh for the low polygon model and then Imported the high polygon mesh (I forgot which path I used). The low polygon mesh encloses the high polygon mesh. The two models have different uv maps. Then I went to the baking menu and baked a normal map. I saved out the normal map from the texture room as a .tga. This normal map below observes the uv map of the the lower poly mesh for which it is intended. Then I tried it it my chosen renderer, Daz Studio (DS), which is what I am making these assets for. Unless the first and now second models that I've sculpted (voxel room) and retopo'ed in 3DC with very good baked normal map as I saw in DS, the Romanesque Arch's normal map looked pretty shoddy. As I said, I've rendered the two other models with their appropriate normal maps in DS and the results were very good, so I'm pretty sure it's the normal map for this particular model, not DS. I'm sure it's due to how I made it in 3DC, but I don't know what I did wrong. As you can see in the render below, all the molding detail of the high polygon arch should be reflected in the normal map (applied to the low polygon model), but doesn't show up much at all. There should be deeper details in the molding. I realize that normal maps don't change the actual geometry, but this isn't even close. As I said, the other models that I made and rendered in DS with their 3DC-baked normal maps were very good and very faithful, so I don't think it's DS and I don't think it's 3DC either. What do I need to change? If you have any more questions, please ask. Thanks.

I think I've figured it out, but I'm not happy with the amount of detail in the normal map.

I have been using 3D Coat occasionally for the past few years. I have a full mesh (high polygon) and a 'cage mesh' (low polygon). I would like to use the low polygon mesh in a project with the normal map of the high polygon mesh. The high polygon mesh fits more or less neatly inside of the low polygon mesh. I made these meshes in another application. They are both uv-mapped, but have different uv maps from each other. I would like to bake the detail of the high polygon mesh as a normal map onto the uv map of the low polygon mesh. Is this possible with 3D Coat. If so, how would I do this? Thanks.