Normal Map stripes

[chrisavigni]

Well, here we go with another Normal Map thread...
Does any one knows why I am getting these stripes? I baked using X-Normal and Maya. It is not a complicated mesh, just an air duct. Everything is correctly set: Hard/Soft Edges, Uvs, etc. Tried other resolutions, Nvdia normalize, and so on. I really don´t know what I am doing wrong!


Thanks for your time!
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l524/chrisavigni/Udk2.png

[passerby]

what is the normal map compressed as in UDK

[haiddasalami]

Multiply the normal map by 1,-1 and 1 to flip the green channel.

[chrisavigni]

passerby: TC_Normalmap. I changed to TC_NormalmapUncompressed and I got much better results, but the stripes are still there!

haiddasalami: Yeah I already have done that. The stripes only changed position!

The curious thing: if I don´t use specular I get no stripes at all using this normal map, but when I combine a clean normal generated using NDO and specular I also get no stripes. So to be honest I really don´t know what to do! I even used this material on another mesh, and stripes again. And I have just baked another Normal and guess what? more stripes.:poly127:

Also downloaded the Marmoset Tool and got the same problem there.

Any ideas?

[SkyGround]

I think you should show here normal map and specular, as they are in UDK/marmoset - TGA or DDS.

[chrisavigni]

I still think the problem is the Normal. As you can see I am using a constant for diffuse and specular and still get the same error!

Here are the textures:http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l524/chrisavigni/material3.png
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l524/chrisavigni/material2.png

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l524/chrisavigni/DUCT_NRM.png

[Xendance]

Try applying that material onto a BSP surface and see if it still causes problems.

[passerby]

when you baked with x-normal did you make a cage or did you calculate out the proper ray distance to use for a cageless bake.

[chrisavigni]

Xendance:Yeap. Same issue.

passerby: Cage as in Maya.

Well I did all the steps again, but this time I used another mesh: uvs, bake, photoshop, crazybump, etc. And again these :poly127: stripes. But this time I changed the compression to Uncompressed and voilá! No stripes! Then I changed again for the original one and no stripes!!!!! Checked over Marmoset and its fine.

So I must import all my normals uncompressed? I understand for a portfolio it should be fine but I wonder if this is ok for production.
What pissies me off is that this is a simple mesh! I must be doing something wrong when I bake the meshes or am I missing something after that? Could be an issue with Tga?

This is driving me nuts:poly142:

[throttlekitty]

Yes, targa files have display/banding issues in some applications.

[passerby]

ya just continue useing uncompressed, and when you got your spec, gloss and diffuse done try it out again with compressed normalmaps, the artifacts aren't very noticeable when other things are in the material.

and it also isn't always a issue, my last few bakes that are useing compressed normals are looking fine in udk, think it mostly happens when there is a very subtle gradient in the map.

[chrisavigni]

throttlekitty: Thanks for the input.

passerby: I will do that. At least for my portfolio.

Thank you all for your time.