Normal Maps Not Working in VRay 3.5 for MODO 11

[peepo]

Hi

I can't get a normal map to render out with either the RT renderer or VRay Standalone, yet the map is visible in the UI screens, and also works with the native MODO renderer.

Is there something I have missed here? I've tried increasing the normal map multiplier to 3, but still nothing appears either in RT or VRay standalone.

I've tried with another normal map. with exactly the same results.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Pali

[vladimir.nedev]

Do you have one UV map on your mesh or multiple ?
Is the texture locator of the normal map texture set to use the UV map and not sold/cubic/etc projection ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[peepo]

Hi Vladimir

Many thanks for your reply. I have one UV map (hero) which covers everything in the scene (it comes directly from Marvlous Designer). I've made different parts of the model have different materials - e.g. jeans, suit etc. They each use the same UV map though. Please see the screenshot - the UV maps have been set up correctly. The diffuse maps seem to work ok - it's just the normals that seem to be the problem. Also the MODO renderer renders it out correctly, so I know it's set up ok (at least for MODO!).

There are 7.6 million polys in the scene, but I've not noticed any performance issues.

Please let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks
Pali

[vladimir.nedev]

In this case I will need the scene to investigate what's going on.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[peepo]

Hi Valdimir

Thanks for the reply - I've emailed you at vladimir.nedev@chaosgroup.com with a cut down version of the scene, showing the described behaviour. Please could you let me know that you've got it?

I said in my email that I thought the normal map was appearing but really faintly. This does not appears to be the case (it was just the pattern on the diffuse map). It appears the normal map is not displaying at all .

Hope this helps!

[vladimir.nedev]

Hi Valdimir

Thanks for the reply - I've emailed you at vladimir.nedev@chaosgroup.com with a cut down version of the scene, showing the described behaviour. Please could you let me know that you've got it?

I said in my email that I thought the normal map was appearing but really faintly. This does not appears to be the case (it was just the pattern on the diffuse map). It appears the normal map is not displaying at all .

Hope this helps!

I've received the .lxo scene, but I am not seeing any normal map texture attached.
Can you send that as well ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[peepo]

Apologies - have emailed you with this. Thank you

[vladimir.nedev]

Thanks for the scene.
You have 2 UV maps in the mesh, one called hero and the other called Texture.
Currently there is a bug where the incorrect UV map is used to determine the tangent basis, so Texture is used in this case and since it's empty, the normal mapping is not correct.
We have this logged as an issue, as a work-around you can delete the Texture UV map from the mesh.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[peepo]

You are very welcome and thanks for investigating. That's a quick and easy fix! I've just done as you suggest, and all is good.

Many thanks Vladimir.

[Robert]

Ah that explains my problem
I wish you would make box mapping work with normals.. really !!

[pixelsim]

Thanks for the scene.
You have 2 UV maps in the mesh, one called hero and the other called Texture.
Currently there is a bug where the incorrect UV map is used to determine the tangent basis, so Texture is used in this case and since it's empty, the normal mapping is not correct.
We have this logged as an issue, as a work-around you can delete the Texture UV map from the mesh.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

I appear to be having a very similar problem to this despite this bug being from a couple of years ago.
The main difference is that I am using 2 UV sets with UVs in both sets.
I cannot share the scene or images here, but can explain.
I am using Modo 13.1 and vray 4.20.90

I have a model with 2 uv sets
UV set 1 has UVs for the diffuse map
UV set 2 has UVs for the normal map
When rendered the normals render incorrectly.
If I try only 1 uv set the normals render correctly
Also if rendered in the modo renderer with 2 UV sets the model renders correctly.

Are you able to say if this is still a bug?

thanks
Simon

[vladimir.nedev]

I appear to be having a very similar problem to this despite this bug being from a couple of years ago.
The main difference is that I am using 2 UV sets with UVs in both sets.
I cannot share the scene or images here, but can explain.
I am using Modo 13.1 and vray 4.20.90

I have a model with 2 uv sets
UV set 1 has UVs for the diffuse map
UV set 2 has UVs for the normal map
When rendered the normals render incorrectly.
If I try only 1 uv set the normals render correctly
Also if rendered in the modo renderer with 2 UV sets the model renders correctly.

Are you able to say if this is still a bug?

thanks
Simon

Yes, it was still a bug.
However, it should be fixed in today's nightly build (the one from 2019.10.18 ).

I wish you would make box mapping work with normals.. really !!

The change also enables normal mapping using projection types other than UV map (CPU only).
However, I am not sure the results will be what you want exactly.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[pixelsim]

Thank you, that is great, I shall update now!

thanks again
Simon

[GidPDX]

So does this mean we can now use more than one map with displacement and normals reliably? Any idea if this will ever work on the GPU?

I guess I should move to using UDIMs for everything, but for some work more than one UV per a mesh is ideal.

[vladimir.nedev]

So does this mean we can now use more than one map with displacement and normals reliably?

I've fixed it only for normals, actually, forgot that there is a similar issue with 2D displacement.
I will log it, it's a little harder to fix.

What do you mean by more than one map ?
Blending multiple textures for the normal map already worked before this, provided you didn't have multiple UV maps.

Even after the fix, all textures with the normal effect within a particular material should use the same UV map.
If they use different UV maps, one will be chosen to construct the tangent space.
If some triangles are missing in that UV map, the tangent space will be incorrect and you will get the same issue as before.

Any idea if this will ever work on the GPU?

What are you referring to which is not working ?
Multiple UV maps on the mesh and normal mapping should work now.
Blending multiple normal maps is however disabled for now.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev