SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

General questions and troubleshooting SOFTIMAGE©
scumworks
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 01:40

SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by scumworks » 28 Feb 2012, 19:35

I've had this problems since dawn of time. Whenever I export an object from SI, it seems to mess up the smoothing/normals, giving me this..

Obj -> Marmoset engine (realtime)
Image

Alot of the time they're alot more visible, but never the less =/. Its not just the engine, as I've seen other RT renders show the same.

This model is exported totally smoothed geo.aprox 180, no hard edges, no nothing. I've tried creating user normals and exporting them with "include user normals" ticked in the obj options but no luck.

Its not the normal map thats the problem. I can simply import the obj in say Maya, do a set to face normals and soften edges and volia! Once exported (obj) or viewed in maya it looks all good.

Now exporting as FBX does seem to fix this problem, while introducing another major problem...

Image

Any object with mirrored UVs will have one side turn up like this (also happens in UDK). Theres a small hack you can do which involves triangulating and re-quadifying the mesh. On large models, this simply isnt an option.

I've tried ANYTHING I can think of. Freezing, deleting trash cluster, FBX/OBJ setting etc...

Could really use some help on this one, as I luv SI =D

-cheers guys

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 09:59
Location: warsaw

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by origin » 29 Feb 2012, 10:54

This won't help you but I've noticed another oddity.
-export obj from SI
-import in max. Everything looks good so far but...
-apply turbosmooth/meshsmooth
-model is subdivided but normals stays from unsubdivided mesh (lol!) and there is no way to fix this (overriding normals with own smoothing groups doesn't work)
-export this mesh from max and reimport in max - everything is ok

Have you tried guruware obj exporter?

scumworks
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 01:40

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by scumworks » 29 Feb 2012, 13:29

:D Thats pretty messed up aswell, atleast im able to fix this in maya. I also sometimes noticed a strange seam running down a symmetrical piece. It sorta waves from side to side along the acual uv seam, but it doesnt seem bound by uvs or topology (other then being on the mesh ofc.). So many ways to make me feel like a tool xD.

From what I can tell, guruware only have a SI importer.

-cheers man.

User avatar
origin
Posts: 619
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 09:59
Location: warsaw

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by origin » 29 Feb 2012, 13:59

uh I was sure that it has exporter also

Anyway after looking at .obj file It seems that SI is outputting normals per vertex per face (so for cube you will have 4x6=24 normals). There is no option to export 'optimized' normals (per face).
Maybe this 'marmoset' supports only per face normals, and is reading obj file wrong way?...

scumworks
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 01:40

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by scumworks » 29 Feb 2012, 15:56

Nice, that would seem likely. Dont have any rt programs apart from marmoset that will load objs, will try dl'ing unity to test.

I do know unity have problems with SI's fbx (as marmoset and udk), from which I learned about the triangulation fix for mirroring.

Maya do display both vertex and face normals on model, but that might not be correct (idk). Smooting the model (to fix) doesnt seem to change the "normal preview" either.

-cheers

scumworks
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 01:40

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by scumworks » 02 Mar 2012, 20:32

Downloaded unity and did a test. Tho it still manage to create a strange hard polygon on the mesh, it overall looks fine.
You should think getting a simple model from a to b would be easy peasy xd

Anyway, thanks for the support origin!

:cheeers

scumworks
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 01:40

Re: SI2012 messing up smoothing on export.

Post by scumworks » 11 Mar 2012, 20:52

Just wanted to add an example of the strange seam I was talking about earlier. Wheres the other lines follow the topology, this one doesnt. Think it might tie into the wierd bug with when exporting with fbx (see second pic.). Only way I found of fixing this, is to delete the geo. in maya and re-mirror it. Simply changing the normal smoothing doesnt help (which fixed first pic.).

Problem with vertex indexing? Really dont know much about these things ^^.

-cheers! =D

Image