[Tutorial] How to fix Lighting Seams in UDK

[Xendance]

Your video is great, it should be on UDN tbh.

[ilguano]

Any one knows how to apply this to blender 3d ¬¬
Thnx in advance

[Kasigawa]

That looks like a normals issue. In 3ds max, select all the faces of the object, go to smoothing groups, set it to 0 degrees and hit auto smooth groups. Export that mesh, which should now be hard edged, into the UDK and rebuild your lighting. I am assuming the mesh already has good lightmap UVs. That should fix your problem.

Basically, Unreal is thinking that the edges of the mesh are smooth, so it interpolates the lighting and shadows to gradient and enhances those features. However, they should be hard, as they are a flat surface with a 90 degree angle. The only time you want smooth edges is on a rounded surface setup.

Dude! I Love you! (no homo) I have been having problems with this for a long time now. What you said worked for me! Thanks and keep up the good work!

[Photonic]

That looks like a normals issue. In 3ds max, select all the faces of the object, go to smoothing groups, set it to 0 degrees and hit auto smooth groups. Export that mesh, which should now be hard edged, into the UDK and rebuild your lighting. I am assuming the mesh already has good lightmap UVs. That should fix your problem.

Basically, Unreal is thinking that the edges of the mesh are smooth, so it interpolates the lighting and shadows to gradient and enhances those features. However, they should be hard, as they are a flat surface with a 90 degree angle. The only time you want smooth edges is on a rounded surface setup.


PS: For future thread searching. In maya you select all and go to normals -> harden.


If this doesn't solve the problem, I would like to get a mesh from you, or even a scene with a setup that you have problems on. This shouldn't be an issue.

[Tom Havlik]

Sorry, I have been busy for awhile now. I have tried to duplicate your problem with low light situations... I don't get them.

Know that you are always going to have very VERY small seams, but they shouldn't be noticeable. If you have an enviornment, or screenshot showing your problem, I might be able to help further.

What type of light are you using, what build quality settings?

Lower quality builds produce worse results. I believe it is because of the lower photon count that surfaces farther away from lights receive, but it is not fixed by placing dummy lights around the place. Quite strange. If you cannot replicate this problem, then it'd be hard for you to help fix

Edit:

I found the problem in another thread.

I get some shadow errors while using meshes to make my walls, strange
Here is a screenie of the error

[heyufool1]

Ahhhh! Thank you so much! This was the primary reason that I stopped using UDK a few months back, but now I can finally get back to it =)))) Thanks again!

[Photonic]

Sorry, I have been busy for awhile now. I have tried to duplicate your problem with low light situations... I don't get them.

Know that you are always going to have very VERY small seams, but they shouldn't be noticeable. If you have an enviornment, or screenshot showing your problem, I might be able to help further.

What type of light are you using, what build quality settings?

[crimson.cosmos]

Hey!

Wanted to say "thank you" for the tutorial. As far as I'm concerned, that was new stuff!

Cheers!

cc

[Tom Havlik]

There are noticeable breaks in the lighting between tileable meshes when an area is poorly illuminated.

[Photonic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntx10JMl9f4

This isn't a solution to the problem with indirect lighting. I am bound determined to solve that one too, though.

That was nice of you. I have known about this for awhile, but it drove me crazy back in the day. You can actually download a plugin for max called "TexTools" which will move your UV shells to the correct pixel locations based on a resolution you set.

By the way, when you said indirect lighting, are you talking about lightmass or...? What other problem are you having with lighting seams, I may know a solution based on the problem.

[Tom Havlik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntx10JMl9f4

This isn't a solution to the problem with indirect lighting. I am bound determined to solve that one too, though.