3DS Max seem to break all faces on OBJ Export - help

[system]

Hi, I’ve made a lowpoly character with armor accessories, worked quite a bit on gettin a good edgeflow on the character and brought it in to zbrush to do some detailwork for normalmaps and displacement.
However I split all the parts into subtools and worked on them, now I’m trying to merge it back, because the model is for a schoolassignement that has to be done by sunday, and I realised that my subtools are at different subdivisions, so merging them at first, made me loose the lowpoly character to do the maps on. I have a poly limit on 30 000, and can only use one UV map for the character with all its accessories except one, which is a sword I tend to model on the side.

Tried to subdivide all the parts to 8 as I have with some of the parts on my model, and now whenever I start merging it seems like it’s too much for my computer to handle. It freezes everytime.
Is it someone that can be so kind to give me some tips here? This is really important. And I really feel the regret of splitting the parts in the firstplace right now.
I really appreciate all the answers I can get

[system]

I know zBrush works in such a way that each subtool can be divided up to what your pc can handle individually, so if you hit your 20mil limit on one subtool, you can still hit it on another, but when you come to merge them you get one subtool with 40mil which pushes your system over the limit (Depending on what settings you’re using of course)

Maybe try using decimation master before you merge?

[system]

I know zBrush works in such a way that each subtool can be divided up to what your pc can handle individually, so if you hit your 20mil limit on one subtool, you can still hit it on another, but when you come to merge them you get one subtool with 40mil which pushes your system over the limit (Depending on what settings you’re using of course)

Maybe try using decimation master before you merge?

I didn’t even know about that one before now. Thank you so much. But will that destroy my edge flow?

Edit: Kind of looks like that it freezes with that as well using pre-process all.

Tried it on one of the tools, makes triangles of the whole model. That means I have to retopo it right? Already made low poly versions of everything before, that I made high poly details on

I’m really having a tough time here. Thought it would save me alot of time, and turns out it does the opposite. Starting to feel stressed

[system]

There’ posted a picture if it helps, now my problem is that it all needs to be having one and only one Unwrap, sharing the texture of a 2048x2048.
And I’m not sure how to do this when it’s not possible to simply merge the parts…
I will indeed go buy twice the ram I got now if that helps. 8gb. This is one of my most important assignements

also, lets say I want to rig it later in max aswell, maybe bring it into a game engine for testing.

[system]

Hi, Jimmarn!

I have an idea how to do it right without buying any additional RAM You should not divide all of your subtools to an equal level, so here’s the plan:

Creating UVs

• take your subtool to the lower sDiv level
  
• go to the Zplugin > UV Master, you may prefer to Work On Clone as it highly recommended there
  
• unwrap subtool with Control Painting advantage*
  
• copy generated UVs, select original mesh and paste UVs
  
• repeat process to the other subtools
  
• export or GoZ them all to Max (this will export lowest sDiv)
  

Arranging UVs into one 0-1 piece

• by selecting all parts of the mesh and assigning Unwrap UVW modifier
  
• here you need to pack UVs automaticly or manually
  
• invisible parts can be scaled down and put in the corner.
  

Now back to ZBrush with proper layout

• export or GoZ all meshes back
  
• now you are ready to bake highpoly details to the lowpoly and all sort of maps you want
  

As result you will have 30000 poly model with a good edgeflows ready for rigging, animation and so forth.

*And of course you can create UVs more precisely in other application or made seams only in Max then unwrap in Zbrush with existing seams.

I hope it will help you!

[system]

Hi, Jimmarn!

I have an idea how to do it right without buying any additional RAM You should not divide all of your subtools to an equal level, so here’s the plan:

Creating UVs

• take your subtool to the lower sDiv level
• go to the Zplugin > UV Master, you may prefer to Work On Clone as it highly recommended there
• unwrap subtool with Control Painting advantage*
• copy generated UVs, select original mesh and paste UVs
• repeat process to the other subtools
• export or GoZ them all to Max (this will export lowest sDiv)

Arranging UVs into one 0-1 piece

• by selecting all parts of the mesh and assigning Unwrap UVW modifier
• here you need to pack UVs automaticly or manually
• invisible parts can be scaled down and put in the corner.

Now back to ZBrush with proper layout

• export or GoZ all meshes back
• now you are ready to bake highpoly details to the lowpoly and all sort of maps you want

As result you will have 30000 poly model with a good edgeflows ready for rigging, animation and so forth.

*And of course you can create UVs more precisely in other application or made seams only in Max then unwrap in Zbrush with existing seams.

I hope it will help you!

Yeah, thank you, I actually did this earlier and turned out to be working very well Although I seem to get a few artifacts when making texture from polypainting around the seams right now. Hopefully something I can fix in photoshop, but a bit worried about the normal map and displacement right there now. We’ll see

Normal map baked in Zbrush, previewed in max. I know theres a gamma bug aswell, but that does not compensate for the each polybug here…

[system]

Try to hide those UV seams as much as possible, especially from the camera view. For example, you can put the seam around his neck beneath the armor (1 loop down). Or you can set seams on top of the hard edges.

For Normal or Displacement maps creation I recommend you to go up for 1-2 sDiv level, delete lower subdivisions then bake. It will provide much better results.
And I don’t remember exaclty… seems that FlipG channel in Normal subpalette should be checked otherwise you will get wrong result with lightning.

[system]

Try to hide those UV seams as much as possible, especially from the camera view. For example, you can put the seam around his neck beneath the armor (1 loop down). Or you can set seams on top of the hard edges.

For Normal or Displacement maps creation I recommend you to go up for 1-2 sDiv level, delete lower subdivisions then bake. It will provide much better results.
And I don’t remember exaclty… seems that FlipG channel in Normal subpalette should be checked otherwise you will get wrong result with lightning.

Yeah thank you, I actually have G flipped here, and there are no seams where they look to be here, that’s what’s weird, I found out that it had bugget abit right in this photo tho, and split up all my faces. I reimported it to zbrush and did a check and the unwrap was right again. but now, there’s still a weird edge there, even after I tried to delete the lowest subdiv, and export it with level2, and newbaked displacement and normals… The displacement acts like if theres a seam on each face of the unwrap… I am really starting to get a bit frustrated.

And the “seam” longer up on his neck there, isnt even a seam I don’t know what’s happened here, but something is awfully wrong, and I’ve really never had this issue with polypainting in zbrush before… . Not with diffuse texture…

But the one down on the chest, is a seam, separating the head from the body. I guess I could try to hide that, but I still have the issue… This makes me sad, and a bit frustrated Got to be done by Sunday.

[system]

I have now, tried to export it out of zbrush, in to max, and the seams seems kindof alright, but not the same as zbrush, when I rearrange the UV Island, and import it back to Zbrush, it seems like all the faces are broken. Tried to reweld and back again, same issue.

If I do anything with the Unwrap in Max it looks like it messes up the unwrap completely. I’ve tried several times now.