Forums Houdini for Realtime New maps baker weird result with AO and HeightMap

New maps baker weird result with AO and HeightMap

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Andr
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I'm trying to bake maps for a very simple noise grid with the new gameDev ‘maps baker’ node but I'm getting weird results, as shown in the images.
The low poly version of the noise grid is just the starting plain grid.


Could you tell me what's going on?
Cheers

first image: high poly geo
second: baked AO
third: baked height.


(ps. I'm not having issues at all with ‘simple baker’)
Edited by Andr - June 5, 2019 07:33:34

Attachments:
Q_baking.hiplc (347.4 KB)
noisegrid.JPG (76.2 KB)
Q_baking_ao.png (677.7 KB)
Q_baking_height.png (22.7 KB)

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Ambrosiussen
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Hi,

This seems to be a bug that slipped in. I have fixed & submitted the height issue. (Will be in build of tomorrow. 1.170)
I am also currently adjusting the AO calculation code, which should be in the build on Friday.

PS: When baking meshes that differ a lot (Any top down bakes / non-decimation meshes), you should use the Trace Mode set to Surface Normal.

Paul
Paul Ambrosiussen
Technical Artist, Freelance
twitter.com/ambrosiussen_p
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Andr
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thanks a lot Paul!
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Ambrosiussen
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Hi,

I have fixed both AO and Height.
Attached a comparison between AO/Height in Maps and Games Baker. (Top = Maps Baker, Bottom = Games Baker)
As you can see there are some differences in Values between the two, but those can be achieved by either matching the number of samples (Games Baker is 2x2 pixel samples with 8 rays cast. Maps = 50 rays cast), or modifying the copnet inside the maps baker. (That's why its there )

PS: This will be in the build tomorrow. (1.171)
Paul

Attachments:
MapsBaker_HeightAO.PNG (666.7 KB)

Paul Ambrosiussen
Technical Artist, Freelance
twitter.com/ambrosiussen_p
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Andr
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Hey thanks for the quick fix, Paul!
I take the chance of this topic for some other issue regarding the baking workflow that I'm learning:

  1. I don't know what happened, but simple baker now returning the following error. It happens now in 171 and 163. It's something related with the geometry I guess, as it doesn't happen with other kind of geo (strange, I'm sure it was working earlier with the same geo):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>
    File “opdefgamedev:op/sop_simple_baker::2.0?PythonModule”, line 6, in render
    File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.258/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion\ui.py”, line 850, in decorator
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
    File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.258/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 51183, in render
    return _hou.RopNode_render(*args, **kwargs)
    OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
    Error: Error rendering child: /obj/sphere_setup/sop_simple_baker1/ropnet1/rop_games_baker/render_plane
    Error rendering child: /obj/sphere_setup/sop_simple_baker1/ropnet1/rop_games_baker/render_plane
  2. Effect scale of the normal texture is always at 1 in the viewport (no matter how you set it).
    This has nothing to do with the GameDev Quickmaterial, I guess. Same behavior happens already in the Principle Shader material.
    (maybe it's just my crappy geforce680 gpu, which is no longer listed as supported for houdini)
  3. Regarding Quickmaterial, it would be helpful if it could preview the displacement from the generated height map as well in the viewport.
  4. With both simplebaker and maps baker, when I apply the generated normals map I see the primitive edge lines showing up. They show up NOT only along the UV shell seams, it's more general problem. Note: I soften up my normals to 180° before baking.
  5. I'm not able to match the high poly geo when I apply the heightmap generated by the ‘maps baker’. In the second picture, from left to right: low-poly with no displace, low poly displaced, high poly geo.
    I tried baking with both Surface Normal and Nearest Surface methods, with not good results.

Last two points are probably due to my inexperience with this baking workflow and I'm seeking advice to fix them.
I attached the hip file I'm using.

Cheers
Edited by Andr - June 8, 2019 06:57:53

Attachments:
baking_test.rar (4.6 MB)
seams.JPG (23.3 KB)
only_displacement_applied.JPG (80.6 KB)

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