Viper2904

Ok, I am about ready to throw my computer out the window at this point. I am hoping someone here can offer some advice. I have tried tangent spaced normals, local, screen, and world... with every option possible. I have tried this with both Mray and scanline... I do not know what else to do. The issue is present in Mudbox and 3ds Max... the only place it is not really noticeable is Photoshop 3d so far. The noramls (or maybe how I need to setup the specular channel in max and mudbox?) are causing seams in the viewport display and on render. It appears that specularity actually intensifies the seams as well (I cannot locate the _s maps in the .bsas that are supposedly the specular maps, I assumed that the normal's alpha channel was being used as the spec, which i have not tested yet - otherwise, why would you keep the alpha channel in the normals?). The only way I have found to remove the seams almost entirely is to remove all specularity, which is not what I want to do while painting in realtime display in Mudbox. This is not the first time I have seen this problem, but it is the first time I have run into it with a 3ds Max - Mudbox workflow, partly because I am not generating the normals, I am loading them it would seem. From Zbrush, I have always had issues with normals (bad artifacting when generating the normals). Normal Map Setup in 3ds Max http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/NormalsSetupinMax.jpg Issues Present in Max and the location of them in the UVs http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/NormalSeams.jpg Diffuse with Normals view http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/NormalwithDiffuseSeams.jpg Rendering from 3ds Max, seams are still present http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/maxrender.jpg In Mudbox they are much more subtle, but still present http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/MudboxSeams.jpg Mudbox again. http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/MudboxSeams2.jpg And finally, Photoshop... http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/PhotoshopExample.jpg [Edit] After Extracting the alpha from the normal map as the specular map... http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/viper2904/junk/NormalsafterSpec.jpg After a lot of tweaking and testing, I think it would be ideal to just take the low poly (after EXTENSIVE rework of the geometry) into zbrush and make a new normal, then re-paint the entire thing in Mudbox. I do not like the Normal maps or the diffuse maps and I definitely dont like where the UV seems were placed. I am not certain if we can change the UVs without adding a new mesh and to my understanding we cannot replace the .nif meshes yet? I have to rework the meshes pretty intense just to take these into zbrush or mudbox for subdivision, there are a lot of open borders in every mesh I have looked at. PS: Just went through the forums trying to find how to put images in spoiler tag to save screen space, but could not find it... I expected to find that in the newbie forum....

Talents: Modeling: High (3ds Max, SoftImage, Maya, and C4D) Texturing: High (Photoshop and Mudbox) Sculpting for nomal maps: High (Zbrush, I use Mudbox for painting) Rigging/Skinning/Animation: CAT preferred for game assets and High, I would rate skinning Mid-High (3ds Max preferred) Preferred contact: PM Other: Working on quite a lot of new meshes, textures, and normals for Skyrim armor and weapons currently. Due to lack of knowledge with Elder Scrolls editing tools though, it may take a while to get them into Skyrim. They will sit in .max format until I have time to research the editing tools. Example of base mesh preparation prior to sculpting. Current WIP for Skyrim base assets. No normal maps yet and not optimized. I make bases then sculpt several variants for each. The organics are not Skyrim-related, those are just placeholders for now.

Well, I just started building a next-gen asset portfolio (rendering looks to be taking another month), but "our" new assets can be found on facebook, youtube, and deviantART. It is easiest to just search "The Freak Factory" on Facebook. We just started doing this, so there are not a lot of videos or renders just yet. I just started specializing in animation into UDK converting CAT to bones so only have 4 fully rigged and animated characters, which all are not completely uploaded yet. I am the "human" anatomy sculptor and hard surface sculptor as well as 3ds Max base mesh modeler and material compositor (can't do a lot of the creative monster concepting, I just make sure topology is fit for animation and I do all the animation based on the muscle system and sketches the other sculptor provides). I want to dedicate most of my free-time to Skyrim content creation. Just my own personal changes that I would not hesitate to share. However, we do still have a heavy workload and I will end up working on Skyrim assets without the rest of my colleagues' assistance.

Thanks! So I need to look more into .nif and niftools then, good start there. Yea, i had a feeling that getting animations from max into skyrim was going to be a pain, but I didn't expect it to be too rough. I am quite curious to know if Bethesda has proprietary software for supporting .nifs if max doesn't support it. That's really the only reason I use max and maya so much. I actually prefer SoftImage. Or are you saying the niftools actually is that software? I won't really be tackling this for a few more days as I have a lot more work to do first, but I would like this to be a high priority of mine. I will build some base meshes in the mean time. Do you have a shot of the meshes? I would like to know how dense I can go on static meshes and deformable meshes. I assume skyrim doesn't support statics as UDK does, so I expect some changes in my topology/decimation/optimization workflow. As for modding being fun... sculpting and animating are my life and passion, that is what i do... the scripting and AI crap though... that is the part that sucks for me.

Just curious if someone could either, point me in the direction on how to do a couple things listed below or tell me how to rework some of this manually. I only ask because there appears to be a few mods out and I am quite interested in building some new custom content myself. Currently, I do a lot of modeling and sculpting in 3ds Max and Zbrush (with a little Maya, Mudbox painting, and SoftImage when needed), mostly undead or morbid themes. I would like to rework a couple of the normal, diffuse, and spec maps in Skyrim (not entirely sure what all maps Skyrim engine supports yet...), especially the horses, high elves, orcs, and dark elves. I also do a ton of skinning and animation in UDK using CAT and CAT muscles in 3ds Max. I would like to know how the bone systems work in Skyrim and if my workflow may work with the anticipated Skyrim construction kit. I do want to do some animation overhauls on quite a few assets, but not anytime soon as I am quite sure that will require refining an entirely new workflow. Mesh deformations on armor is just really annoying... I hope to find the armor meshes separate from the race mesh, but that will not be what I find I am sure. The last thing is armor and weapons. These appear to be quite static so adding a ton of new weapons and armor may not be excessively difficult, but adding them to the games asset list "without" overriding meshes and textures already in use is a bit beyond my profession (this would also require adding new armor, weapons, and shields to the smithing tree as well I'm sure). I am quite sure that this will be a massive effort, but static game assets and map reworks don't take me very long, as well as normal maps. I would just like some direction here if possible.