So i did a very quick test to expose the problem im facing… i did a sphere, added a multi resolution modifier and sculpted some bumps… then, i set, intentionally, some seams on a very obvious place to make the issue evident…
Base mesh with the odd seams (intentional, to prove the point) and some basic deformation:
This is how it looks with the modifier on level 3.
When i hit “bake normals” i set the viewport resolution of the modifier to 0 (because i want the normal map for the low poly)
When i hit bake this is the result:
And when applying that normal to the low poly sphere i see this:
In your last images, it seems you are applying the normal map to a subdivided version of the low-poly mesh. However, you say you baked it for the level 0 mesh. Normal maps are meant to be used on the exact mesh they were baked for. What does it look like if you apply the normal map to the unsubdivided mesh?
baking normal maps it’s done precisely when you want to use the normals of a high poly mesh on a lower poly mesh, that’s the idea… baking normals from a high mesh to a high mesh would produce nothing.
both meshes are the same. the one im testing the normal is the same mesh as level 0 of the multi res.
Yes, it’s clear you baked from a high-poly mesh to a low-poly, but in the images it looks like you applied a subdivision surface to the low-poly object after the bake was complete.
It seems to be that your UV are directly attaching the border of the UV space. So even if the left/right top/bottom normal map color seems to be equal in color and normal this might not be the case. I would suggest to scale down your UVs a little. On the other hand your margins (odd on purpose) are… well odd. So the different length of the polygon edges in the UVmap might lead to a little (to big) disturbance because of different values on different sides of the margin edge (this may be not so obvious with color only but normals…).
Even if the special wrinkle you are refereing to seems to be the one where the margins is well distributed …?
In the bake settings there is neither “bake from multires” nor “selected to active” checked. To my understanding, one of this options is needed to bake from a high to a low poly. I wonder how Blender would determine which is which in this scenario.
Quick test shows that apparently it does bake Multires - I get the same results with it checked or un-checked (though it has its own Margin setting for some reason)
@BlenderSL i, specifically trying to bake normals (reasons below)
in responso to everyone, im not trying to bake from multires, im was tryingto bake normals. I know the bake from multires would be better and would produce no errors, but im intentionally trying to bake normals for cases were my material has a complex normal setup (like a normal + a bump map)
@Okidoki the diferent sizes in polygons make sense, mabe that’s THE issue indeed (?)
i thought (mabe from ignorance) that baking a normal would produce smooth results out of the box. But i see that mabe this is a tweaking kind of process… mmm…
