Bake Creates Bizarre Seam

[ss3D]

Struggled to find any information online with folks who have had a similar baking issue.  

I get a seam where the normal map appears to have zero information.  Look closely at the UV and you can see a green brush stroke.  Except I didn't brush that on and this was the result of the bake. 

1. I've attempted three different UV unwraps,  didn't change anything.
2. I messed around with the cages, didn't change anything.
3. I screwed with it's orientation.  Nothing.  
4. Checked the model for errors - nothing.

I get the same seam regardless of what I've tried on multiple attempts at baking. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

 

[Carlosan]

Hi !

Are you using latest version ?

[ss3D]

Yes - non beta though.  Also had the same problem on the steam version as well.

[Carlosan]

Can you split the model ?

Looking at the image, it seems that some faces overlap.

[ss3D]

Used Maya's cleanup.  There are no lamina faces. There is no overlap that I am aware of.  I specifically targeted this particular trouble spot from the image (there are more) and pushed the vertex around, didn't reveal anything.  Something, as near as I can tell,  is going horribly wrong during the bake.  I have zero clues as to why.  It's not the UV unwrap either.  I've tried three different unwraps and the outcome is the same.  I get the seam in the exact same locations.  

[Carlosan]

can you share the model to take a look ?

[ss3D]

Just use the auto unwrap if you're going to attempt the bake.  Very curious if it recreates the problem for you.  Thanks for your time.

HP_Bangs.fbx

HP_Hair.fbx

LP_Bangs.fbx

LP_Hair.fbx

[Carlosan]

Hi !

I found that the model to work is very small, with that size I could not perform any bake.

Look at the baking settings. working with decimals is not recommended.

 

[Carlosan]

HP_Hair have 4 floating vertices.

HP_Bangs have a floating Edge with 111 verts.

 

[Carlosan]

After scaling all to 50% in external app

 

The project ready to perform bake test

HB.zip

[ss3D]

Thank you so much for your time and effort! 

Unfortunately, this does not appear to resolve the issue.  I still get the hair lines after the bake.  I quadrupled the size of the model just to be sure.  I located and fixed the additional vertex.  

Did you actually run a bake to test the results?  Mine came out the exact same even after making the fixes.  

Edited September 14, 2017 by ss3D

[Carlosan]

Yes, please look at the end of the post above.

My test project link was added.

3DC v4.7.37

[ss3D]

2 minutes ago, Carlosan said:

Yes, please look at the end of the post above.

My test project link was added.

3DC v4.7.37

To clarify: I tried baking the file you attached, as well as my own version after cleaning up the HP models. Both displayed the same normal map artifacts from my original post. 

The artifacts always appear on the front right and left side of the hair model, and the tip of the bangs model. The angle of your screenshot does not display these areas.

[Carlosan]

I can make another bake later to display that area.

Have you tried using another shader for H_models ?

[Carlosan]

Sorry cant replicate.

Try using this settings. Hope it helps.

 

[ss3D]

Ok, so I fixed the problem, but the solution feels...  wrong.  Baking normals with dithering turned on didn't appear to affect the result for me.  Here is what worked.  On the 'Import Object for Per Pixel Painting panel, I had everything checked off but 'Don't Snap Sub' and turned on the 'Auto Smoothing Groups'.  I set the Max Angle to 70.  This created an anti aliasing issue along the more acute/obtuse angles of the model.  To fix that, I went into preferences and changed Realtime padding mode to 'Naive padding' and boom, it's given me the best result thus far. 

Thanks again for your time.  

 

 

Edited September 15, 2017 by ss3D

[Carlosan]

Smoothing groups are supported via OBJ format. But you need to export normals also from your 3D-model app. 3D-Coat uses normals in OBJ file to recover smoothing groups.