SHtools normal baking

[strangelet]

im wondering about where to get hold of SHtools, ive worked with it in a commercial environment with ue3 licensees and it produces absolutely amazing results - artifacts from other baking apps just magically seem to dissapear when using SHtools to bake stuff, even if you do it fairly sloppy.

usually no more than 1 bake is required and it can cope with single smooth groups far better than max or xnormal, where you frequently have to doctor the resulting bakes to a horrific extent. have i missed this in the udk? is it provided or can we get it somewhere?

[Stromberg90]

Dont know if this will help you but i found this, on the UE3 wikipedia.

"Please note that the SHTools mesh processor and server were created before Max/Maya/XSI had their own normal mapping tools. We generally use those now for creating our normal maps. It is strongly suggested that you consider using a 3D Modeling package such as Maya to create normal maps."

Here is the site.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ImportingSkeletalMeshTutorial.html

[strangelet]

wonder if thats a No. seriously tho i use max baking and zbrush baking all the time and SHtools pwns it so thoroughly for comprehensive artifact elimination its just silly. in comparison, max bakes are hard to get looking perfect.

maybe ive just never used the right settings for max baking but shtools is an Epic app and seems to be set up *just right* for the unreal engine. i might do a couple shots of max 1-pass vs shtools 1-pass bakes to show you guys.

[OscarZulu9]

i use maya's baking, and then just layer in detaiils with the xNormal photoshop plugins. but please do share. Thanks. btw Angels Fall First looks very nice :D

[gokzor]

I would really like to know this also. SHtools is way better and easier to use in my opinion... but i have never seen a version of it for anything other than max 8.. Anyone know where we could get this from?

[gokzor]

Ok the assumption you cant get as good a render in max in incorrect, If you use the Hammersley renderer you will get just as good a result... you do have to set up your cage manualy though which is a pain. Id rather the simplicity of SHtools but this will do.

Jody

[gokzor]

As strangelet didnt seem to get round to it i thought id take the opportunity to..

Here is a 1-pass render of a VERY simple object first one is the default render from vanila render to texture, second is from SHTools and the third is default max render but with hammersley super sampling turned on. I think hammersley wins really... and the SHTools render was easy but didnt pick up as much detail at all! this could prob be fixed by overlying it again in photoshop... but still hmm

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/9411/normalrendertest.jpg

Jody

[dr3k]

quick question: can we have angels fall first for ps3 maybe? =)

[gokzor]

Not in UDK at the moment its pc only assuming the devs dont have a licence or some sort of deal with epic.

[strangelet]

cool goz but i wasnt talking about the sampling quality, more to do with the way that shtools deals with vertex lighting problems - on awkward pieces of geometry. i really must do some comparison pix but my system drive just this week bit the dust >.<

generally i render SH at 4096 and resize it.

and as for AFF:PS for ps3 - most probably not :( its too big, too buggy and we have a lot of custom sound which cannot be ported to ps3 at all due to sony's proprietary encoders.