First bake, all is okay EXCEPT for my custom model (with UV Lightmap) :(

Hey all,

Long story short, I'm experimenting with VR whilst I have my frineds Oculus. Making a simply scene, want it to look at least slightly decent.

I'm using a custom table with table cloth that I made in Blender quickly.

The bake is causing the individual squares (cells?) on the table look awful! Here's some screen shots.

This is how the table looks with the light baked (done twice, once with and once without the cloth):


Here's my Unity Bake and Mesh Import settings:



Here's my TableCloth's UV map and Lightmap from Blender:



And finally, here's my Table's UV Map and Lightmap from Blender:


I will gladly provide more screeshots and infor as requested. If anyone has any ideas why this is happening I'd be greatly appreciative!

Laters,

Mike

 

Do you have any parts of the UV that overlap with each other. That’s what that looks like. In the import settings of the model there is a “generate light map uv” checkbox, try that.

 

@newjerseyrunner m

Hi, many thanks for the reply.

No, there's no overlap. In the blender screencaps the bottom image in each is the lightmap - there's no overlap.

I have tried having Unity generate it's own lightmaps as well. I've just run it again, here's the results - they are only marginally better:


Any clue?

Again, many thanks.

Mike

 

Okay, still no luck, but here's what I just tried.

So I was wondering if it was something to do with having 2 UV's from Blender, So I removed the UV map and set the lightmap (with separated cells) as both the UV and Lightmap UV. Still no good when generating or importing UV lightmaps into Unity.

So instead I combinged both the table AND the table cloth into a single object in case Unity didn't like having them both imported at the same time (didn't think it would be that, but just being thorough). Still no luck when Importing or Generating UV Lightmaps.

Here's a screenshot of the combined object UV/Lightmap...


... and the result:


Man, this is driving me crazy!!!

P.S. I feel that I should state that I'm using 2018.2.11.f1

 

This looks to like you don't have enough resolution. Do the results improve if you use higher resolution?

 

Hi @AcidArrow , thanks for helping out.

Okay, I tried increasing the resolution of the following:
1) The Lightmap Unpack settings - I increased the image size from 512 to 4096. I also increased the padding to 0.85:


2) I increased the size of the UV map itself to 4096 as well as I wasn't sure which setting would override which.


The results weren't great:


So I increased the 'Progressive Lightmapper' resolution settings as well. The Indirect resolution is now 8, the lightmap resolution is now 50, the lightmap padding is 4 and the lightmap size has been increased from 512 to 4096:


And yet the result are still, although a LOT better, not great...


Again, thanks for the assistance. Can you think of anything that I'm missing?

Mike

Update:
Have just told Unity to generate it's own Lightmaps for this item and the results came out better, but still with visible problems... Screenshot to follow

 

Even when telling Unity to create it's own UV lightmaps for the table and cloth these higher resolutions still have visible issues...

 

Hi @JenniferNordwall ,

Many thanks for the reply! XD

Will get on that and privde you with the screenshots soon (have to pop out for a little bit).

I asked myself this same question. I have currently turned off the Baked GI in favour of a 'simpler solution' (at least, I think it's simpler) and it looks fine. Although I wanted to bake for experimenting, performance practice and the like so will try your recommendations and get back to you.

I will DEFINITELY give those a look. Was looking for some kind of information/tutorial videos but wasn't finding much. Thank you for the titles, I'll search for those and have a good look.

Again, many thanks. I'll get back to you with the results soon (only just figured out how to find an object on the global map, LMAO)

Edit:
Sorry, when you said this:

Which setting were you referring to? (Being a little dumb today...)

 

Hi @JenniferNordwall

Whilst awaiting your reply about which setting I should be changing I ran another bake with these results and settings.

ScreenShot:


Settings:


Lightmaps:
(close up of a table item - 1 of 3)


Total Lightmap:


There are also some warnings about overlapping UV's (to do with my custom models being imported) however, as you can see from the blender screenshots AND the lightmaps there are no overlapping cells. But, as @newjerseyrunner said, this does look like overlap...


I feel I should mention another piece of the puzzle. I originally tried to replicat what I saw on a Brackeys video where he used planes with an emissive material for baked lighting (it was this video that made me want to look into baked lighting), however when I am trying to use an emissive material on a plane it simply will not bake ANY results from these lights. This is why I was mixing the realtime with the baked - because I was needing point lights to reproduce was I was trying to achieve with the emissive material...

Anyway I hope that hasn't muddied the waters any further...

Mike

 

Hi Jennifer,

I will watch those videos today (already start that first one, just stopped at that bit, funnily enough) and get back to you. Again, thank you so much the help, everyone.

Mike

P.S. Jennifer, it's nice to know that even you Unity Gurus struggle at times

 

@JenniferNordwall

Hi Again,

Okay, I've watched that first video ("Bake it til you make it"). It was so informative. I just thought the Unite conferences were just talking about upcoming stuff (like StarCon), I'm DEFINITELY watching them more from now on!

(The solution was found at 25:55 where you state a rough minimum spacing that's needed between cells)

Basically, the problem is solved (at least to a standard that I'm chuffed with). You're absolutely right (@newjerseyrunner , you too), it is the overlap of the UV's - I thought using the ones I made in Blender would be enough - it wasn't.

I ramped the "Pack Margin" of the "Generate Lightmap UV's" advanced options in the mesh importer up to 37 and that is doing wonders. I'm able to tweak the other options a bit more now and get results more to what I want.



I'm still experimenting with the Realtime and Mixed options... but the point is that it's been pretty much solved. Again, thank you so much.



Summary:
Tweaking the 'home made' Lightmap UV's I made in blender was not enough to get a large enough spacing between the cells. I had to adjust the options on Unity's mesh importer and boost the "Pack Margin". This pretty much solved the issue.

Thank you so much for the help Jennifer - you're a legend.

All the best in your work - it's really appreciated by all of us Unity users! XD

Mike