I am humbled and am asking for your help after trying to make this work for 2 days. I have tried as many different combinations of the zmapper config as I can think of yet the color still comes out wrong. Is there a config out there that gives the right colors? I am sure I am being too vauge. If you need to see screen shots of my config then I would be happy to show it. I thank you in advance.
correct color from xnormal:
You’re creating an Object Space Map. You’re looking for a Tangent Space Map. Look in the upper right corner of the ZMapper interface.
(For Mac users, you’ll find the choice in the Tool>Normal Map menu.)
Thank you for the reply! Indeed the tangent gives me the color I am looking for. The normal itself though is veeerryy messy even at very high polycount. How can I achieve the object space quality with the tangent normal? Thanks!
Do you have multiple UV regions? Or one UV map, but it extends outside the 0,0 to 1,1 space?
All UV’s should be completely within a UV space. If any extend outside, they should be brought in (with a bit of buffer around the edges). If you have multiple spaces so that you can have multiple maps, you will need to use Tool>Polygroups>Uv Groups followed by Tool>SubTool>GrpSplit to break the model into separate SubTools for each map. You’ll then be able to use ZMapper successfully.
they are all in the same UV space.
my workflow is…
model in max 2008 > unwrap > xform > xport to obj
import into zbrush > subdivide > sculpt > SDiv -1 > Zmapper > Nvidia Tangent Space conig > Create NormalMap
Is something missing from in there?
Could you please try pressing the Tool>Texture>Uv Check button? Does any part of the model turn red? If so, then the UV’s aren’t all in the same space after all.
thanks for your help aurick!
when I press the UVcheck button the whole mesh turns red. Yet Col > Txr extracts the color information to the texture properly (though the texture is flipped vertically which I unflip in PS) Is this the problem? How to I prevent the UV’s from being flipped vertically?
UV’s are always flipped vertically. That’s not to blame for your issue.
If the UV Check feature is turning your model red, then there is a problem with the UV’s. It might be as simple as a couple points that are outside the 0,0 to 1,1 region – or so close to the edge that they’re getting read incorrectly.