Dirty lightmap

[Meshedpotato]

I always start with the default map for testing - besides I try to avoid altering worldproperties as much as possible for level designer compatibility.
Can I have your revisioned model? I would like to see the differences.

[obihb]

Maybe it's the material then. I didn't think of that before. I just used fairly low gray and your material has the yellow.

[Meshedpotato]

Update: On second thought, I think something IS wrong with my UDK.
Big round spots appear, no matter what resolution of the lightmap is, on even the most simple forms imaginable...

[Meshedpotato]

Sorry to bump here, but my problem still isn't solved. I keep getting the issue as seen in the above post. UDK itself is not the problem.

[obihb]

Really not sure why you get such a bad result. I tried to replicate this and even at lowest quality, I don't get nearly this bad result.

One thing I can tell you just in general is that it's not a good idea to have your light map UV so split up. It seems to me that every face is split on the UV and that's really not a good thing.

Here's my test result with Production lighting.



Sorry I don't have an answer for you, I just don't get your results on this test. I can only show my results, which isn't even close to yours. Not sure what's up there, on your test result.

[Meshedpotato]

Well yeah, lightmapping in Max gives equal results to lightmapping in Blender.
I've seen a few more of similar threads across the internet, none of them have been properly solved.
All I can think of now is that the February and July UDK builds of 2013 are corrupted? Which build are you using?

[obihb]

I am using the July build but I used the Feb build for a long time as well. There's no corrupt lighting in any build.

It's not that there aren't solutions for lighting, it's just to know what they are. In your case, I don't know what you're doing so I don't know why you're getting these types of results. You said before that you used default scene but I can see in your lighting colors that you must have changed things. It just depends on what you changed.

The defaults also are not the most perfect settings, they are settings that give generally good results at good speeds. As you can see in my shot, they are acceptable results. There's stuff that you can tweak after that, inside the editor and if that doesn't do the job also in the .ini file for lightmass. You really should not need to do this to get better results than your current results though. I know that bad UV's will give worse results, but I still don't think it should be this bad.

I will suggest again that you create proper, clean lightmap UV's for your model, then use the default startup scene and test it out on Production lighting. Make sure your UDK install is clean, default install. There's no point in trying to tweak something from a point where it's already altered and not knowing what or where.

If you keep getting bad results with defaults and you want to make your test scene available, then I can also check if I use your actual map and model and everything the same, what do I get and why. I can test on my side with my own model but that's not the same as your model and your scene even if they look similar. I mean, before, with your first post, that problem was re-producible on my side and I had an idea why it was a problem. But your new test scene, I can't reproduce it on my side, so I can't tell what's going on.

[Meshedpotato]

I am using the July build but I used the Feb build for a long time as well. There's no corrupt lighting in any build.

It's not that there aren't solutions for lighting, it's just to know what they are. In your case, I don't know what you're doing so I don't know why you're getting these types of results. You said before that you used default scene but I can see in your lighting colors that you must have changed things. It just depends on what you changed.

The defaults also are not the most perfect settings, they are settings that give generally good results at good speeds. As you can see in my shot, they are acceptable results. There's stuff that you can tweak after that, inside the editor and if that doesn't do the job also in the .ini file for lightmass. You really should not need to do this to get better results than your current results though. I know that bad UV's will give worse results, but I still don't think it should be this bad.

I will suggest again that you create proper, clean lightmap UV's for your model, then use the default startup scene and test it out on Production lighting. Make sure your UDK install is clean, default install. There's no point in trying to tweak something from a point where it's already altered and not knowing what or where.

If you keep getting bad results with defaults and you want to make your test scene available, then I can also check if I use your actual map and model and everything the same, what do I get and why. I can test on my side with my own model but that's not the same as your model and your scene even if they look similar. I mean, before, with your first post, that problem was re-producible on my side and I had an idea why it was a problem. But your new test scene, I can't reproduce it on my side, so I can't tell what's going on.

Okay, here is a report of what I did.
* Fully uninstalled UDK July 2013 build
* Installed UDK July 2013 build
* Use the default map at startup
* Import my "box2.fbx" (the one from Blender 2.6), at importing I checked "Import LODs", the following warning came along:

An out of date FBX has been detected.
Importing different versions of FBX files than the SDK version can cause undesirable results.

File Version: 6.1.0
SDK Version: 7.3.0

* Import my "box2max.fbx" (the one exported from 3Ds Max 2013), at importing I checked "Import LODs", the following warning came along:

Warning: No smoothing group information was found in this FBX scene.
Please make sure to enable the 'Export Smoothing Groups' option in the FBX Exporter plug-in
before exporting the file. Even for tools that don't support smoothing groups, the FBX Exporter
will generate appropriate smoothing data at export-time so that correct vertex normals
can be inferred while importing.

In conclusion, no old version of the FBX format but no smoothing groups.

* Place both models in the map (scaled box2.fbx 60 times and box2max.fbx 120 times)
* Build the light at preview quality (left: box2.fbx right: box2max.fbx)

As you can see, both get the big spots on them. Bare in mind that I haven't messed with any defaults up to this point.
* Build the light at production quality

Models still looks trashy, and somehow more purple-ish (but that is probably because I restarted my package, so another random material was created)
*Both qualities give me bakings that only show full resolution in-game when I'm standing very close to the models.
*Make this post.

I'll upload the files soon.

Edit: downloadlinks

http://speedy.sh/PE8zv/Firstmap.udk
http://speedy.sh/6Mqun/Themodels.upk
http://speedy.sh/mHFQN/box2.fbx
http://speedy.sh/JQ9HC/box2max.FBX

[obihb]

Your current result there is actually pretty typical. It's not 100% smooth, but the default lighting setup in the UDK will not do that on perfectly clean surfaces. Generally your texture is gonna hide 99% of lighting problems.
I tested your scene and my results are the same so your UDK works fine. Your previous problem was pretty much caused by bad UV's, I'd say.

So, if you compare your previous result with this new one, you can see how much better it is. Although your UV still is not 100%, you get that nasty step on the light map in the corner there. If you straighten your UV edges, you'll get rid of that and should also get rid of the small black edge on there.

I also suggest you export the model at correct size. Your models are tiny in the UDK. I really suggest you get your scale right at export.

The "problem" you have on this last shot of the cube really is because of texture compression. On your preview bake you can actually make out the photons, and that is a possible problem even at production quality, in certain circumstances, as proven by your original post, but when that gets solved and you get a good light map, you're still left with a compressed light map. So on your last pic here, the production bake, the banding on there, it's caused by compression.

You can switch off light map compression in your base lightmass .ini file. If you really need the maps to be 100% clean, I think, and, as far as I know, that's the only way. Not sure if compression itself is tweakable. So, like I said, your current result is fairly typical and in most cases is actually completely fine. But if you need to have light maps 100% clean on pure surfaces, like flat gray or whatever, then I don't think you'll get there by any other means, other than switching off light map compression.