I'm looking to bake normals in maya and some other types of maps in xnormal and have the projections line up perfectly between apps. Does anyone know of a way to export maya envelopes for use in xnormal? Alternatively does anyone know how to perform and identical mesh expansiion as the envelope so that I could export that as a custom cage?

I don't know how to export envelopes, but you can get the same functionality by going into vertex mode, and in the Move tool settings Under Move Axis select normal.

This pretty much works like the envelope tool, and works great for things where you need a larger cage on in certain parts and amaller for others (hands etc...)

If you disable "delete envelope after bake", I think you'll be able to select and save the cage mesh out on its own, and then just use that to bake in XN. Make sure to soften normals first so you don't get any gaps or anything, and then just use a really low raytrace distance.

That shouldddddd work.

I use transfer maps' envelope. Enable visibility for the envelope, select and export as obj.

Hey Guys, I am also having these issues in Maya. I did all suggested above and even went and exported cage out of Maya and I still get the error? I checked the vert count identical? Not sure what to do next?

What error are you referring to? I was asking about getting projections to line up between baking applications (which I have determined is not possible between maya and xnormal).

micahmcneely > you need to triangulate every mesh that are coming out from Maya if you want no error
I forget that sometimes...

Originally Posted by funshark

micahmcneely > you need to triangulate every mesh that are coming out from Maya if you want no error
I forget that sometimes...

well or just use xnormals sbm format, iv never had issues with the cage mesh not matching if i export the lp and the cage and high usesing that formate.

The latest xNormal has some option in the plugins that needs to be disabled, something to do with a triangulator I think and shortest distance from memory? If you don't turn that off it'll always complain about your cage even when you give it exactly the same model(at least in my experience). Disabling that option in plugins will fix that problem.

Taking the envelope/cage from maya to use with xnormal doesn't produce the same map though, I've had an issue where maya bakes fine but with xnormal I get a seam and no one knows why.

It's because they don't bake the same way and not with the same tangent normal.