New Participant

Height map baking/exporting

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 5, 2023
25 replies
8728 views

I am having an issue baking/exporting height detail. I wish to use my high res from zbrush to bake my details and then add more detail via substance materials and such and then export the result as a hieght data for displacement in maya. Baking high res to low res yeilds correct looking normal channels but the height channel looks like trash. It almost looks as if the resolution was set to 64x64 even though the bake is set for 2048. I wasn't going to worry about it since, if I remember correctly, substance combines the normal and height channels together for the height map export but that isn't working either. The following have items have failed to remedy the issue: I have tried turning it off and on again. Tried softening normals. hardening normals. Re-exporting all meshes. Starting new files. changing bake resolution. Changing bit depth. Making new meshes. changing projecting distances. I'm running out of ideas. Am I broken, or is substance?

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Scote801

Known Participant

If we test at the extreme of the push, we can see the black lines DO something on the mesh. I dont think it should do that.

Personnaly I except no black lines on my gray height map. Is there a reason why Painter does it? because zBrush dont. I also can paint manualy in Photoshop a map. Black pull and white push. That Painter bake doesn't react how we suppose to get it in my opinion.

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Scote801

Known Participant

Thanks for explaining that. I tought the height channel was the displacement.

Cyril Dellenbach

Community Manager

Substance 3D Painter always convert the Height channel into a Normal, so if you simply Drag & Drop the baked Height map in the Layer Stack, it will convert it into a Normal, therefore it won't work properly.

However, you can use a Displacement channel, plug the baked Height map in a Layer at the Displacement slot, and this will work as expected.

Regards,

Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe

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Scote801

Known Participant

OK I will try

But get with my file and my mesh a good result? Could you share the result

Cause. just reading the map itself. If black pull the nesh and white push it and 50% grey do nothing.. then all those lines in the map should do that: the dark lines visible in the map (wireframe baked) should pull in the mesh. And my result do that.. in PAINTER.

Let's ignore Maya for now. Let's try to understand why my baked result read bad and the result in Painter read bad too.

deepakamba33

Known Participant

not working please can u make video send me from maya

Cyril Dellenbach

Community Manager

Hi @Scote801,

I'm sorry to insist, but there's no current issue with the baked Height map. The faceted result is the one expected.

To have the proper result inside Maya, subdivide your mesh with a simple subdivisions (unsmoothed), and not with Catmull-Clark subidivisions (smoothed).

Regards,

Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe

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Scote801

Known Participant

is there an update on the issue?

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Scote801

Known Participant

I know. We dont need to circle the issue here to see the issues 🙂