Baking an AO map just gives me a black texture

[riuthamus]

I do not understand why I keep getting a black texture. Some models it works just fine, others it doesnt. I cant seem to understand what is causing this. Any help or suggestions would be great!

THESE ARE MY BAKE SETTINGS: (I have tried without, reduced lights, non separate objects)

THIS IS THE RESULT:

[riuthamus]

So, this is interesting.... I exported my UV model (the black AO one) and then re-imported and created a bake map and walla....

(not sure it matters, but I left the covert Z up so it moved the models orientation again)

Edited January 16, 2023 by riuthamus

[AbnRanger]

54 minutes ago, riuthamus said:

I do not understand why I keep getting a black texture. Some models it works just fine, others it doesnt. I cant seem to understand what is causing this. Any help or suggestions would be great!

THESE ARE MY BAKE SETTINGS: (I have tried without, reduced lights, non separate objects)

THIS IS THE RESULT:

Can you do a test and see if it is the UV's? A black texture almost always points to that. Go to the UV workspace and for each UV set (a drop list menu in the upper left, just above the viewport), click the UNWRAP button in the tool panel. Once that is done, click APPLY UV SET. Now, go back to the Paint Workspace and try AO baking once more and see if it works this time. If it does, then that means there was something fudged with the UV's prior to this test.

[riuthamus]

24 minutes ago, AbnRanger said:

Can you do a test and see if it is the UV's? A black texture almost always points to that. Go to the UV workspace and for each UV set (a drop list menu in the upper left, just above the viewport), click the UNWRAP button in the tool panel. Once that is done, click APPLY UV SET. Now, go back to the Paint Workspace and try AO baking once more and see if it works this time. If it does, then that means there was something fudged with the UV's prior to this test.

As far as I can tell, no issues with my UV. I will re-unwrap them just to be sure. I think it has to do with smoothing groups. My import settings might be the reason for it, since I can get the textures to spawn correctly when I tick some of those settings off/on. I still get black with these UVs unwrapped and applied. However, if i export and import and lock normals and generate smoothing groups... I can bake an AO. The AO is blocky and not really proper. If I turn off the setting for generate auto smoothing groups I still get the black issue.

 

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN MAYA WHEN EXPORTING:

Edited January 6, 2023 by riuthamus

[riuthamus]

And just so it is clear that my UVs are not the issue, this is what it looks like in Substance Painter:

Baked AO, Normals, Curvature, World Space Normal (no issues)

[Fluffy]

@riuthamus

Out of curiosity, have you checked your scene scale for any of the models which aren't working?

I ask because there seems to be some relevant information in this thread...

Also, have you tried baking a curvature map to see if those results are also incorrect, that may provide some clue as to what type of issue you're facing?

[riuthamus]

17 hours ago, Fluffy said:

@riuthamus

Out of curiosity, have you checked your scene scale for any of the models which aren't working?

I ask because there seems to be some relevant information in this thread...

Also, have you tried baking a curvature map to see if those results are also incorrect, that may provide some clue as to what type of issue you're facing?

I will try that, but I am doing the normal size for UE models. Would seem odd, but it might be related since I have other issues related to UI import and export. Let me tinker a bit and will get back to you.

[Carlosan]

Try Light count = 1024

and...

Can you share the model to take a look ?

[riuthamus]

This is the UV map, on a brand new model.



This is the AO map at 1024

This is the Curve Map (default settings)


I was trying something that I thought was causing the issue (importing from maya while all the objects were in a group in maya). That didn't do anything, however, it did create an interesting result.

A DIRECT import from maya with these settings:

 

Had the following default UV's (I didnt create them so I am assuming 3DCoat is auto doing it?)

 

And without doing ANYTHING, just going directly to bake an AO, this is the result I would get:

 

So, that makes no sense....

[Carlosan]

looks as bug fixed on updated version.

Glad you solve the issue