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Normals have dark streaky artifacts...

Discussion in 'General Graphics' started by KevalrOxy, Sep 10, 2017.

  1. KevalrOxy

    KevalrOxy

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2015
    Posts:
    21
    Hi - can anybody please tell me why my Normals look like this? I have them in other places too. Pretty bad. They didn't used to look like this... this exact same model was working fine, but now it's doing this. I believe it's Normal map related because if you take down the level to around 0.6, it goes, but so does my normal map. I've been trying to figure this out all day and I have run out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Texture_Error.jpg
     
  2. KevalrOxy

    KevalrOxy

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2015
    Posts:
    21
    *Update*

    Has nobody seen this problem before? OK... well after further investigation This is my process. I use Substance Painter to author my maps (which is an incredilbel bit of software BTW). Anyway... I exported all maps again, one at a time, tested it in unity and repeated until all were done, and it seems by switching off the Height map, or rather, not including it in the export from Substance Painter, fixed it. It doesn't look as good in Unity as it does in Substance, and I'm not sure why that would happen, but it appeared to fix it. I did make additional changes also, so I need to hone in more precisely as to the cause. Just though I would let you know and if anybody else could explain why that would happen, it would be greatly appreciated.
     
  3. philc_uk

    philc_uk

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2015
    Posts:
    90
    Its the shader you are using for the bark, in combination with the normal map, if its got jagged edges (sharp) you will see stuff like that.
     
  4. KevalrOxy

    KevalrOxy

    Joined:
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    Thanks philc... It's just the standard shader. Unity doesn't know it's a tree... it's just a model with the standard shader on it. Do you know if Unity looks at object or material names to determine what they are, and then render accordingly?
     
  5. philc_uk

    philc_uk

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2015
    Posts:
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    If its a 'terrain' tree placed by the terrain paint brush, then it has to be a Very specific setup in order for it to all be happy.
    It will warn about this. There must be 2 materials called 'Leaves' and 'Bark' and they must use the nature/soft occultion shaders otherwise things like wind wont affect the tree or billboarding wont work properly.
    If its not a terrain tree and just a normal model then i got around that sort of problem with a different snow/moss shader which blends properly to semitransparent which do not show those hard edges.
     
  6. KevalrOxy

    KevalrOxy

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2015
    Posts:
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    I thought as much. That's a really S***ty way to do things. Yeah... I've used the crappy paint brush trees. They just look awful. There's no normal maps or anything... they all face the same direction and are pretty much character-less. Just the worst. Maybe ok for distance trees that you'll never get close to, but not for up close use.

    For the project I'm currently working on, I want my trees to look like this (made them myself - this is Unity). The painted terrain ones just don't cut it...

    The snow / moss shader sounds interesting... where did you get it?

    Trees.jpg
     
  7. philc_uk

    philc_uk

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    Jun 17, 2015
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  8. KevalrOxy

    KevalrOxy

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi Philc... they look interesting. I'll check out Blue Horizon. Are they terrain 'painted' trees or custom trees? I want my trees to move in the wind while using everything that the standard shader offers, but it doesn't look like it's possible right now. So it seems if you want good looking trees, you have to sacrifice wind, and terrain placement. It's a very dated system, and you say 'we all want trees like that', and you're right, it should be possible in Unity. It is in other systems.
     
  9. philc_uk

    philc_uk

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2015
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    90
    You can use a shader to wave the tree leaves slightly., But yes, its terrain trees with inbuilt wind or static one unless you mess about yourself. In the screen shot they are static models, I wanted them to face different direction ect!