I am creating a low poly asset, currently working on high poly for normals. I knew that this screw on the side would be very time consuming to add within the main model itself so I created it separate. Only after I made it I realized my surface wasn't flat beneath... if I'm not mistaken it will appear as a separate object. Not only was this a problem alone but I noticed that if I put it in position the depth actually goes into the model.

I'm not entirely sure what would be the best way to approach this.

Did you try and bake it to see how it is, to me it looks like the floater will bake just fine if you set up your cage properly for your LP.

Throw some sort of deformer on there to try and match the underlying curvature. You also don't need to worry about putting the screw into the actual position. As Ace alluded to these kinds of details are called floaters and when you set them not to cast shadows they look fine when baked down.

I had this problem; the edges of floats did seem to appear if the underlying surface was curved differently. I still haven't really figured out how to fix it :/

Just remove the outer lip or change its design to hard-edged.

OR, duplicate the subdivided geometry in that area, knock a hole in the cage, and stuff the detail in there. This way the floater will not float per sé, but intersect with the actual model.

Originally Posted by m4dcow

floaters and when you set them not to cast shadows they look fine when baked down.

Noob question probably. How do i do this when i bake my stuff in xnormal (modelled in 3dsmax)?

I would either model it into the model or bake it flat and combine it with the base normalmap in ps works good if you got a good unwrap.

Originally Posted by S_ource

I would either model it into the model or bake it flat and combine it with the base normalmap in ps works good if you got a good unwrap.

Both methods take longer, with no significant benefit.

You simply need to make sure the outer edge of the the floater matches the shape of the object below it. This is usually pretty quick to do even by hand.




Learning how to do little tricks like this will save a loooottttt of time.

Originally Posted by Steppenwolf

Noob question probably. How do i do this when i bake my stuff in xnormal (modelled in 3dsmax)?

Its either in main screen, like "disable backface casting" or its in the AO options, I don't remember, but its easy to find(don't have xn installed on my laptop, I can check later if you still can't find it).

Joe, I used to recommend that too, but stopped because if the lowpoly isn't clean the projected normals won't line up correctly when baking and the floating geo gets offset (then you have to go into explaining how that works etc etc)

Try what EQ says, then if it doesn't work, just go with the bottom variation in his pic (unless the detail is very large or something)


edit: oh yeah, and always avoid any kind of manual editing of the normal map. It just gets to be a massive pain, baking several pieces, combining, redoing... A whole other level of dependency is not good (plenty of people work lke that though)

Originally Posted by perna

Joe, I used to recommend that too, but stopped because if the lowpoly isn't clean the projected normals won't line up correctly when baking and the floating geo gets offset (then you have to go into explaining how that works etc etc)

If you've got a hard edge or a soft edge there, both methods rely on the low being "clean" to avoid skewing etc. Removing the little lip isn't going to make it bake any better if you're getting skewed errors with the top style.

Unless I misunderstood your post or something.

But yeah, I could write a few page on projection errors, skewing, floaters etc, things like making your floaters too deep or floating them too high off the mesh. Thats a whole other bag of worms.

Also, wtf go to bed.

Originally Posted by EarthQuake

If you've got a hard edge or a soft edge there, both methods rely on the low being "clean" to avoid skewing etc. Removing the little lip isn't going to make it bake any better if you're getting skewed errors with the top style.

Yeah, it's a different thing. In terms of skewing the actual shape of the floater you must have a big angle mismatch, so that's not a huge issue. But even the tiniest amount of skewing onto a surface that is supposed to be parallel will create a hard edge in the shading where the opern borders of the floater are

Originally Posted by perna

Yeah, it's a different thing. In terms of skewing the actual shape of the floater you must have a big angle mismatch, so that's not a huge issue. But even the tiniest amount of skewing onto a surface that is supposed to be parallel will create a hard edge in the shading where the opern borders of the floater are

Hmm, still not sure I really understand, maybe post an image?

I do the little lip on just about all of my floaters and I can't say I've ever really had an issue with it. Even if the surface isn't 100% accurate it usually isn't noticeable(but I'm anal about lining that shit up), even still in actual use a very light seam from the angle being off is IMO better than a clear seam around the object when you don't use a lip... Though AA helps with that I guess.

I suppose if you have a lot of floaters to place along a complicated curved surface, its a lot quicker to do the hard edge floater thing than tweak the lip on a bunch individually, though I usually only run into a couple of those sort of floaters per asset.

A [+] quad used as a wrap/cage deformer would make that kind of tweaking pretty easy, if one needs go to that route.

Originally Posted by EarthQuake

Its either in main screen, like "disable backface casting" or its in the AO options, I don't remember, but its easy to find(don't have xn installed on my laptop, I can check later if you still can't find it).

Thanks!