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Rendering with Arnold in 3ds Max using the MaxtoA plug-in.
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Why isn't Arnold rendering my normal map and edges correctly?

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Message 1 of 12
Anonymous
6885 Views, 11 Replies

Why isn't Arnold rendering my normal map and edges correctly?

 
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Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

hi, P I am attaching some information regarding my issue..

you can see some normal map information come through in the render, but it doesn't seem to override the hard edges of the geometry...i get a hard edge/seams visible in the arnold render that aren't visible in my viewport render.

1155-prtscr-capture.jpg

1156-prtscr-capture-2.jpg

1157-prtscr-capture-3.jpg

1158-prtscr-capture-4.jpg

Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

1159-prtscr-capture-5.jpg

1160-prtscr-capture-6.jpg

those first images show the viewport shader (desired result!) and then an Arnold render using a blinn shader. see attached for an AiStandard Shader render of the same...its even worse than the blinn. any ideas anyone? please? Please note that my normal map in all cases has been generated in maya using Transfer maps from a high poly mesh, and always in RAW colorspace in the shader.

Thanks!

Message 4 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Can anyone help please? This seems like a very common problem...i'm surprised no one seems to run into it as well or no one has some help or hints to offer based on their experience? Thanks!!

Message 5 of 12
brian_Foley
in reply to: Anonymous

@michael yeomans

Try Out Color to input of aiNormalMap.

1180-screen-shot-2018-03-28-at-52428-pm.png

1182-cube.jpeg

Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Thanks for the help Brian!

I tried what you asked...it yields the same result. here is an arnold render showing the Aisurfaceshader version on the left, and the blinn on the right (which naturally doesn't render properly in Arnold)...and also the hypershade graph for each.

I think the difference between my data and yours is that I have hard/soft edges on my asset, and a normal map baked from highrez subd mesh data...whereby yours is a completely soft edged asset with a tiling normal map not baked from highrez geo, am I correct?

I don't get why this isn't working...its following a standard workflow for UVing, baking/texturing from high to lowrez. why doesn't the normal data in the texture override all the surface smoothing information in the model? I have not changed the hard/soft edge data after I baked the normal map.

thanks!

Mikerender-02.jpg

1189-hypershade-03.jpg

Message 7 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Is there anyone from the games industry who has experience renderung their normal mapped assets in arnold here?

Message 8 of 12
joseconcha
in reply to: Anonymous

@michael yeomans I was able to finally get this working for some game assets of my own following @Brian Foley steps above. The only thing to add is to double check that the file nodes are set to raw, because after several iterations I needed to repeat this step.

Message 9 of 12
kelson.haas
in reply to: Anonymous

That does not work I have already done all of this I have also done a million other steps on other websites as well. I have tried every setting combination and it still does not work. The only reliable way to fix it is to uninstall and reinstall Maya and it still doesn't always work every time. Files work for a while and then stop working and if you don't have a previous save version of the file that works you can't render the file. I have fixed every error and warning and I still can't render normal maps in Arnold. It shows that it is working in the Hypershader but it doesn't work in Arnold. Could someone fix this glitch already? I have tried 4 different versions of Maya and it is on all of them.

Message 10 of 12
sputknick
in reply to: Anonymous

Is it possible that you have conflicting concerns? Did you build subsurface scattering in the Arnold render well. If so, that will likely wash out your normals. Apparently if SSS is at 1 then your normals won't work at all.

Message 11 of 12
Reithierion
in reply to: Anonymous

I also have the same problem. Followed @Brian Foley steps. Still have visible hard edge on seams in render only. Strange thing is that I have already done previous renders in this scene that looked fine. I have not touched anything to do with material or model. Just decided to start doing it one day.

I kinda miss Mental Ray. It was simple.

Message 12 of 12
malcolm_341
in reply to: Anonymous

I have the exact same problem, I feel like this is a bug in the Arnold shader and I would love to know how to log this as an official bug to Solid Angle. The problem is the Arnold rendering can't render a tangent space normal map on top of hard edges correctly like the Maya viewport can and every single game engine can.

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