Modo: Low-Poly Looks Polygonal Despite Normal Map

[El Junk]

Hi. I'm using Modo to put together a low-poly model. After making a normal map in xNormal from a high-poly model, I am running into some issues with the low-poly still looking polygonal. Here is a pic.

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac271/El_Junk/lowpoly_normal_problem.png

I thought someone on this site had the exact same issue going on, but I couldn't find the thread :(, and I'm having a bit of trouble finding help.

I plan on taking this mesh into Messiah for rigging and animation after I get it looking right in Modo. I feel that if the mesh is looking fucked up in Modo with the maps, it's going to look fucked up in UDK.

Any way to correct this issue in Modo before an export? Will Messiah somehow royaly fuck my shit up on the way to UDK? Will UDK just royaly fuck my shit up on principle? Any help is appreciated.

[El Junk]

I was having issues working with Modo's smoothing angle. I was adjusting the base material, but it was being shadowed by a material in a material group that was sitting on top of the base in the shader tree. opps.

[Ben Apuna]

If you are having trouble going from Modo to xNormal you should give Ariel Chai (http://boards.polycount.net/member.php?u=17107)'s pipelineIO script (http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=41509) a try.

or

While in Modo split the edges on your geometry where you want hard edges. Then in xNormal change the "Smooth Normals" settings for both the low poly and high poly models from "Use exported normals" to "Average normals".

[feanix]

I also found that xNormal tends to mess up the normals of an OBJ permanently when using "average normals" so I always use a copy of the obj for xNormal.