Mesh artifacts and Cavity mapping

[Findus]

I have a hard time getting a really clean mesh for materials with cavity or bulge. Most of the time there are some minor mesh artifacts or stepping and moiree from voxels.
 

Cavity doesn't seem to have a setting for size/detail or angle limits and simply blends the one available option in and out, exaggerating the artifacts. Wondered if this is a realtime preview, but a quick render test didn't seem to change much. (But I have yet to take a closer look at rendering in general.)

Smoothing in Voxel works fine in principle, but introduces new artifacts around the edge of the brush (and I would prefer a completely automatic method.)

Smooth All in Voxel and Surface mode actually worsens the problem most of the time especially with more iterations and introduces new edge artifacts / stairs all over the model. (I tested with a simple sphere with a bit of sculpting)

Increasing the resolution doesn't get rid of the problem (seems a really good way to introduce checker patterns, see second image)

Converting to Surface changes the artifacts around a bit and gets almost rid of the checker patterns caused by a subdivision operation, but doesn't get rid of them completely/introduces new ones.

Tested various Smooth All  methods and Clean Clay tool options without much luck.

Tried increasing the Voxel resolution (seems a really good way to introduce checker patterns, see second image) , converting to Surface (reduced grid patterns noticably, albeit not perfect) and resampled to a lower resolution

 

Maybe an auto retopo and reprojection (if that's possible)?

 

Edit: Small noise is from the normal map. Should have probably deactivated that for a clearer picture.

 

Edit2:  Smooth with a small brush works well in Voxel mode as mentioned, but as soon as the brush gets bigger, the same artifacts as with Smooth All appear. Not sure if these are actually mesh errors or just display problems. Slightly tapping with a small  smooth brush will make the artifacts go away (with new ones appearing at the edge of the brush) longer strokes can lead to more artifacts.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by Findus

[Carlosan]

This is a realtime preview, try switching Use cavity and Flat shading = off, editing Objects Shader Settings.

[Findus]

Thanks, Carlosan, but then I don't have cavity at all, do I?

When I render, the artifacts get a bit better / blurred (seems like many variants overlayed) but they don't go completely away. 

[Findus]

Found it! It's possible to create curvature maps in the Paint Room as well (textures menu), with some more control and without artifacts.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Findus