Blender | Black Edge Normal Map Artifacts |
This is primarily to address achieving better normal results in my Blender helmet modelling and texturing series, though I also want to open up a broader discussion about this topic.
I'm no technical expert with any of this, but there is a clear visual discrepancy with how normals are handled in Blender 2.79 and Blender versions from 2.8 onwards. I understand that the change made was to address ray intersections to prevent shading errors. However, there seems to be an unintentional side effect with this implementation.
Where the normal maps appear to render fine in Cycles version 2.79b, they have clear visual artifacts in 4.1 (not the most up to date version, though the 'error' still persists).
The two solutions I propose, for specifically my helmet modelling and texturing series, is to either add in a slight bevel to the edges (which causes issues with the texturing pipeline) or to disable the 'bump map correction' setting in the material settings.
I think it would be a great option for us to be able to toggle between the pre and post 2.8 normal interpolation methods to have great artistic control over model. Though, given there have been similar reports of other normal errors that stemmed from this change in 2.8, I'm not optimistic this will occur.
Fingers crossed that EEVEE Next has the same normal map handling as a raster engine with the added visual prowess of a raytraced render engine like Cycles. 🤞
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Chapters:
0:00 Rendering in 4.1+
5:13 Rendering in 2.79b
8:00 Closing Remarks & Your Thoughts
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Looking for help with either the Blender helmet modelling tutorial series or the helmet texturing series? Join the Discord below for personalised help and share you finished creations so that I can see your amazing models!
/ discord
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Want to learn how to create hard surface models of your own in Blender? Join me as I take you through a comprehensive Blender helmet modelling tutorial. Perfect for those interested in Halo and modelling in Blender.
Learn hard surface modelling for free in Blender with my Master Chief Helmet modelling tutorial series below. 👇
• Blender - Master Chief Helmet Modelling Tu...