How can I Fix these Seams in my Normal Map

#1

Hello,

I’m developing a tool to generate a normal map that softens the hard edges in Low Poly models without the need of a High Poly model.

This is one example:

Everything works fine when the soft surfaces are on their own UV islands as seen above. However, when I bake a model where the soft surfaces are attached on large complex uv islands, I see seams at the edges where the surfaces meet:

Detail:

My hunch is that OpenGL is filtering the texture, and the filtered normal is very different to what would be logical at that fragment. I can fix the texture baker or the fragment shader but I’ve ran out of ideas to test.

Does anybody know what is wrong, or have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you very much in advance!

#2

Let’s rule out the most basic thing first…

Make sure you have enough pixel padding (the more the better), also space between UV shells IF you split your shells according to your object’s “smoothing” groups.

#3

Thank you Psyk0,

Yes, as you say, the UV islands need to be split according to the objects ‘smoothing groups’.