Baking Issues - Seams and Sharp Corners

[aleodom]

Hi, all.

I'm new to Substance Painter. For my current project, a few steps, I am getting harsh seams and sharp corners when baking my high poly sculpted model from ZBrush onto my low poly exported model. What are the possible solutions?

I will include a gallery of screenshots containing the model in different programs and my workflow and a .zip file that contains the fbx files for closer examination.

Gallery: here

.ZIP file link here.

Thank you for your help.

[CAGameDEV]

Are these hard edges split in your UV map? I made an example awhile back in the Discord server regarding this:

The problem - if I bake without adjusting ray distance, and using a cage:



If I bake the high on the right with the low on the left (moved apart to just show, they're in the same spot prior to exporting), you'll see that edge isn't visible anymore.

[aleodom]

Are these hard edges split in your UV map? I made an example awhile back in the Discord server regarding this:

The problem - if I bake without adjusting ray distance, and using a cage:



If I bake the high on the right with the low on the left (moved apart to just show, they're in the same spot prior to exporting), you'll see that edge isn't visible anymore.

Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately, I am not quite sure what it is you're suggesting I do in my case.

Am I to rebake the high and low poly in Maya? Do I need to create a cage? If so, which mesh do I need to do this on; high, low, both? I do not know what a "cage" is or how it is done. I sincerely do not comprehend your response.

When you asked if the hard edges were split, are you asking if I cut those edges in the UV map? If so, then yes, the hard edges are split. Do I need to re-unwrap my mesh? How am I to properly unwrap and create this "cage"? What about the high poly mesh that I sculpted? Does this mean I have to re-unwrap the low and high poly mesh then resculpt in ZBrush? I am so confused.

Will you break down the steps for me, please? Super lost right now. Sorry for all of the questions.

[CAGameDEV]

I can show you but you need to provide proper meshes. Your low and high are not matching in size and position, thus they wont bake correctly anyways. I also checked the low poly, the splits are not correct to bake and avoid such seams due to the clashing.

[aleodom]

I can show you but you need to provide proper meshes. Your low and high are not matching in size and position, thus they wont bake correctly anyways. I also checked the low poly, the splits are not correct to bake and avoid such seams due to the clashing.

That's odd. When I bake in Substance, the scale and position seem to match but when I import the meshes into Maya, the scale and position are different. Is it ZBrush that is scewing the scale? How do I fix this?

[CAGameDEV]

Not sure what happened as Maya was showing it different like that... Both had scales 1,1,1 and were different sizes. I ended up taking your high and low into zBrush then exporting it back out and now it works fine in Maya.

Also I would suggest not using ASCII on your High Poly, but use BINARY. You'll save file size, plus it is faster to load in. Unless of course you need it to be ASCII due to some custom loader. In zBrush on export just select [Bin].

I'll post back later with the solution regarding the bake now that I have workable versions of the mesh.

[aleodom]

Not sure what happened as Maya was showing it different like that... Both had scales 1,1,1 and were different sizes. I ended up taking your high and low into zBrush then exporting it back out and now it works fine in Maya.

Also I would suggest not using ASCII on your High Poly, but use BINARY. You'll save file size, plus it is faster to load in. Unless of course you need it to be ASCII due to some custom loader. In zBrush on export just select [Bin].

I'll post back later with the solution regarding the bake now that I have workable versions of the mesh.

Goodness. You're awesome. Thank you so much. I'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[CAGameDEV]

I'll try to get something for you tomorrow, if not on the weekend.

[aleodom]

Not sure what happened as Maya was showing it different like that... Both had scales 1,1,1 and were different sizes. I ended up taking your high and low into zBrush then exporting it back out and now it works fine in Maya.

Also I would suggest not using ASCII on your High Poly, but use BINARY. You'll save file size, plus it is faster to load in. Unless of course you need it to be ASCII due to some custom loader. In zBrush on export just select [Bin].

I'll post back later with the solution regarding the bake now that I have workable versions of the mesh.

Hi! Were you able to find a solution regarding the bake for the steps? I have been struggling to fix this on my end but haven't had any success, yet.

[CAGameDEV]

Yes, I did but I just haven't had a chance to post the complete version. I did a side test and got it to a workable state.

I'll try to post something later today as I needed to retopo the entire thing so the low and high matched better for baking there.

[CAGameDEV]

I'm a bit short for time so I'll go over what I did prior. The issue you're getting is due to the low and high not matching up on that edge enough.

If you look at your wireframe on your low and put it over your high you can see your edge doesn't follow properly.



Then when you bake you see those seams:



I did a quick retopo over the corner part and matched up the edge better (I made the top too small which is why it doesn't look right height wise, but the point was more to show the edge itself):



Now it bakes out like this:



If you actually zoom in close enough no matter how you do it there will always be a seam, it just wont be as visible from a distance as what you initially had. There are ways to hide it better but the goal is to make less visible.

You could also try using a bevel on that edge or making it something other than just a single edge going down and following it in the middle.

I also wouldn't get too caught up with seams unless they're visible enough from the viewing distance in which the object will be seen at. If an object is going to be that close to see these seams even with a perfect set up, then you should be adding more supporting edges.

[aleodom]

I'm a bit short for time so I'll go over what I did prior. The issue you're getting is due to the low and high not matching up on that edge enough.

If you look at your wireframe on your low and put it over your high you can see your edge doesn't follow properly.



Then when you bake you see those seams:



I did a quick retopo over the corner part and matched up the edge better (I made the top too small which is why it doesn't look right height wise, but the point was more to show the edge itself):



Now it bakes out like this:



If you actually zoom in close enough no matter how you do it there will always be a seam, it just wont be as visible from a distance as what you initially had. There are ways to hide it better but the goal is to make less visible.

You could also try using a bevel on that edge or making it something other than just a single edge going down and following it in the middle.

I also wouldn't get too caught up with seams unless they're visible enough from the viewing distance in which the object will be seen at. If an object is going to be that close to see these seams even with a perfect set up, then you should be adding more supporting edges.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it because I felt as if I was about to have to start from scratch. Either way, looks like I need to do a good deal of retopo. Once again, thank you for taking the time to respond to my question in detail.

[CAGameDEV]

One thing I always do when doing any manual retopology is to work on edges first, I always do this then fill the rest in and I rarely get problems.