Re: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?

["Tim Leydecker" <BauerOink(at)gmx.de>]

Hi Holger,

> Thanks, I will take a look into it this evening.
> Did not had time this week to test and read your thread links.

No problem. I´d really appreciate if you can share your
results. I´ve ZBrush 2 lying around for quite a while now.

There´s loads and loads of stuff I have get worked out in
both ZBrush and XSI - those damn blokes at FH Wiesbaden
and the related diploma set me back a rough 2 years in actually
doing 3D and getting a grasp of the latest tools and techniques.

> But for the quads you mentioned: all of our models are made
> with quads, cause there have been some reports that n-gons
> are not very good if you use Zbrush and displacement.

the n-gons get tesselated into tris/quads, changing the meshorder.
Not a good thing for something allready enveloped or animated.

Cheers

tim



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Schoenberger" <XSI(at)digidragon.de>
To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 2:17 PM
Subject: RE: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?


> Thanks, I will take a look into it this evening.
> Did not had time this week to test and read your thread links.
>
> But for the quads you mentioned: all of our models are made
> with quads, cause there have been some reports that n-gons
> are not very good if you use Zbrush and displacement.
>
>
> Holger Schönberger
> technical director
> The day has 24 hours, if that does not suffice, I will take the night
>
>
>
>  |> -----Original Message-----
>  |> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
>  |> [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
>  |> Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 1:07 PM
>  |> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
>  |> Subject: Re: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?
>  |>
>  |> Hey Holger,
>  |>
>  |> I see there´s other people that share their problems,
>  |> here´s a (looong)
>  |> thread about XSI 5.1 (most will notice, saw some familiar
>  |> names). A subthread of this picks on the way the non-quad
>  |> subdivision displacement works, e.g. not works.
>  |>
>  |> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=332248&page=7&pp=15
>  |> (single examplepost, francescaluce)
>  |> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3418588&postcount=98
>  |>
>  |> I´m sorry. I didn´t not realize. Out of routine I tediously build
>  |> my models *quads only*, makes I/O between apps alot stabler.
>  |> I currently often transfer between Maya/XSI/ZBrush.
>  |>
>  |> I try to never have n-gons (originally due to UV stretch) and will
>  |> only have tri´s on wip models, I guess that´s why my tringulated
>  |> meshes when passed over to mR made no problems with normals
>  |> up to now.
>  |>
>  |> Thanks for making me aware.
>  |>
>  |> I´d also welcome a reliable fix asap, just to make sure.
>  |>
>  |>
>  |> tim
>  |>
>  |>
>  |>
>  |>
>  |> ----- Original Message ----- 
>  |> From: "Tim Leydecker" <BauerOink(at)gmx.de>
>  |> To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
>  |> Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 11:35 PM
>  |> Subject: Re: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?
>  |>
>  |>
>  |> > There´s another thing regarding the flipping you get.
>  |> >
>  |> > I have problems correctly making out the 0-1 range
>  |> > in the UV Textureeditor, together with wrap this
>  |> > could be the reason your UV´s are scaled back into
>  |> > the 0-1 range, simply looking wrong...
>  |> >
>  |> > Other than that, what you describe sounds like you
>  |> > haven´t vertically flipped the (bump/normal) image
>  |> > from ZBrush for use in XSI. Both Maya and XSI
>  |> > require the images coming from ZBrush to be flipped in V.
>  |> >
>  |> > You should easily be able to test this using the imagenode
>  |> > Adjust/transform settings, having the image piped into
>  |> > the diffuse for better viewing.
>  |> >
>  |> > This is a bitchy thing, especially when working with large
>  |> > amounts of textures and AUV tiles, where it´s difficult to
>  |> > make out what the heck is on the image anyway.
>  |> >
>  |> > All hard Normals could be because you imported the
>  |> > *.obj files having "usernormals" checked, I allways have
>  |> > those ignored, XSI has it´s personally prefered 60°...
>  |> > Maya has 30°, Max 35°. Stuff therefore *can never*
>  |> > look as smooth (compared to tesselation) as a default
>  |> > XSI model.
>  |> >
>  |> > Cheers
>  |> >
>  |> > tim
>  |> >
>  |> > P.S: Setting up smoothinggroups/usernormals in XSI isn´t *ideal*.
>  |> >
>  |> >
>  |> >
>  |> >
>  |> > ----- Original Message ----- 
>  |> > From: "Schoenberger" <XSI(at)digidragon.de>
>  |> > To: <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
>  |> > Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 2:52 PM
>  |> > Subject: RE: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?
>  |> >
>  |> >
>  |> >>
>  |> >>
>  |> >> I have the same problem. I got the problem on January
>  |> and did not find a solution
>  |> >> till now.
>  |> >> There are threads on XSI base and cgTalk, started new
>  |> threads, nothing...
>  |> >>
>  |> >> It looks like the bump is flipping between polygons, right?
>  |> >> It flips at your texture UV seams.
>  |> >> If you don't use a normalmap, if you use displacement
>  |> only, then your normals are
>  |> >> not smoothed at your UV seems, you always get hard
>  |> >> edges. This problem can be ignored if your normal map
>  |> would work right...
>  |> >>
>  |> >> The only workaround I found was to create an UV map on
>  |> your own and put the UV
>  |> >> seams where you don't see them. But I have some
>  |> >> models where I cannot hide my UV seams...
>  |> >>
>  |> >> I tried to use the new XSI Ultimapper to create a
>  |> normal map from a highres mesh
>  |> >> onto a lowres one, same problem...
>  |> >> Has anybody ever used normalmaps with XSI?
>  |> >>
>  |> >>
>  |> >> Regards,
>  |> >> Holger Schönberger
>  |> >> technical director
>  |> >> The day has 24 hours, if that does not suffice, I will
>  |> take the night
>  |> >>
>  |> >>
>  |> >>
>  |> >>  |> -----Original Message-----
>  |> >>  |> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
>  |> >>  |> [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
>  |> >>  |> Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 1:20 AM
>  |> >>  |> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
>  |> >>  |> Subject: ZBrush+XSI+Normalmaps - plus displacement?
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Hi folks,
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> I have some problems getting XSI to correctly
>  |> >>  |> use my *fresh* normalmaps created in ZBrush.
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Can you nurse me through the XSI specific
>  |> >>  |> settings or provide a link to a tutorial or
>  |> >>  |> samplenetwork that successfully uses
>  |> >>  |> Normalmaps (from ZBrush) in XSI 5.01//5.1?
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Using the Multidisplacement2 plugin for ZBrush
>  |> >>  |> I get great results for using 32bit *.tif images in
>  |> >>  |> XSI for "fine" displacement, as long as I stick to
>  |> >>  |> the shading network that is autocreated when you
>  |> >>  |> import an *.obj file and set the alphafactor to 2.2.
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Now I´d like to add a Normalmap ontop the
>  |> >>  |> displacement, e.g. the displaced surface but
>  |> >>  |> can´t even get a simple Normalmap without
>  |> >>  |> displacement to look right.
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Of course checked the the Greg Punchatz ZBrush+XSI
>  |> >>  |> guide allready
>  |> http://206.145.80.239/zbc/showthread.php?t=30420
>  |> >>  |> but really don´t get any further, I seem to have missed
>  |> >>  |> some setting when creating the normalmaps somewhere.
>  |> >>  |> It´s not the V-flip...
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> Cheers
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> tim
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>  |> ---
>  |> >>  |> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
>  |> >>  |> following text in body:
>  |> >>  |> unsubscribe xsi
>  |> >>  |>
>  |> >>
>  |> >>
>  |> >> ---
>  |> >> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
>  |> following text in body:
>  |> >> unsubscribe xsi
>  |> >>
>  |> >
>  |> >
>  |> > ---
>  |> > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
>  |> following text in body:
>  |> > unsubscribe xsi
>  |> >
>  |>
>  |>
>  |> ---
>  |> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the
>  |> following text in body:
>  |> unsubscribe xsi
>  |>
>
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
> unsubscribe xsi


---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi