Height map baking/exporting

HI @Cyril Dellenbach 

  but if the result of the exported map from Painter bake lines of the facets then the map is not useable in any softwares.

For my example below: everything should be gray 50% except the embossed parts (should be light grey or white) but substance don't provide the propre result.

see my files (2k maps with 2k bake)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROe0l1Fh8MEu5Y7p8yqqk0uNAYAYnWfe/view?usp=sharing 

i think u don't work i m angry can u make fix hight map update thanks

maya export fbx substance painter bake hight map line problem, i dont understand please can u make record send me video

Hi @Scote801,

As mentioned upthere, this is how the Height map is supposed to be, therefore no matter what you're doing, the result will always look the same.

The faceted look directly on the bitmap is due to what it is made for. The Height map exported from Substance 3D Painter is made to work on mesh with simple subdivisions (unsmoothed), but not with Catmull-Clark subidivisions (smoothed).

Try this height map in any software with a simple subdivision, it should work properly.

Best regards,

i also substance painter baking hight map very bad

I also getting a faceted height map.

I try few things:
1---
My lowres is a bottle I "soften edges" the mesh then export as FBX smooth mesh/triangular
My Highres is a zBrush exported version.

2---
My lowres is a bottle I export subd1 from zBrush, the mesh then export as FBX smooth mesh/triangular (no soften edge before)
My Highres is a zBrush exported version.

I also try no smooth mesh or without triangle. I also try soften edge on the high res.

Same result. I just bake in Painter and export the result. It's not the arnold or other software issue. The map look wrong directly from Painter

Indeed, Arnold use Catmull-Clark subidivisions, this explains the issue.

The Height map exported from Substance 3D Painter should work properly with simple subdivisions, but not with Catmull-Clark subidivisions. This is in fact why you can "see" the mesh's polygons in the bitmap.

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/1947155/#Comment_1947155

So whatever the software is, it should work as expected as long as the mesh isn't smoothed.

Best regards,

1st picture: Faceted baked map used as "Displacement"
2nd picture: Test render in Arnold with the same baked map, using subdivisions in the Arnold Propertie modifier

Here either I have the same issue. (My low poly model has 1 smoothing group)
Indeed, I'm talking about painter because I have no solution for Designer yet, In painter you can use this faceted baked height map as "displacement" and not "height" map, the model will look as if the baked map was from Zbrush.

However, outside Painter, the issue stills occurs, like in 3ds Max and Arnold (what I am using).
The core problem is the way the different softwares subdivide the models to apply the baked height map.

Can someone from Adobe could confirm the subdivision process in painter is different between the use of displacement vs height or hy there is a difference between the 2 methods?

My solution (Max+Arnold) is to avoid using the subdivision pannel in Arnold Properties modifier and only use the displacement pannel, loading my height map there. Before the Arnold Properties modifier, I put an OpenSubdiv or Turbosmooth modifier and add the subdivision levels here. No more faceted look in the final render.

Of course, my model only need 2 or 3 subdivisions, depending on your computer power and scene complexity, this workflow may not work.