surface baker question

[PeteS]

I am baking an interior scene. since a character will be loaded seperately in the scene later over a deskand therefore will recieve shadows and not need to be baked, I took the desk and put it in the second layer so it will cast shadows on the first layer.

I now have all the elements of the scene that i want baked in the first layer. I tripled the offending polys that need tripleing. Then i went to create an atlas UV for the first layer. What I thought was wierd was that the polys are all on the bottom 3/4 of the UV map. The top was empty?. I've seen some tutorials that do show blank space. Usually for any other type of UV it takes up the whole UV box. I just want to make sure this is right. It seems like a waste of space and render time.

Also, when you measure map size (i.e.:512) is that total pixals? or is the width 512 by 512 high? some areas have type on it and i want to make sure its legable so i want to gauge the final map size.

Thanks for your help,
Pete

[dablan]

Pete,
512 is kind of low - jack that to 1024 or more.

As for the baking and placement, yeah, it often shoots down to the corner.

But baking the surfaces/radiosity is cool yet you can't really put a moving character in later, and have it seamlessly blend. It wasn't part of the original baked solution. Try it out though with some simple lights - you can most likely fake the radioisty on the character.

Good luck,
Dan Ablan

[PeteS]

Thanks for the definite answer, wasn't sure if i messed up something. Anyway i cranked up the map, but there is so much geometry in the scene that it crap out on he render. anyway, i think the non-bake is the way to go anyway! Geez, I ask a simple question and Dan Ablan writes you back. Thanks a million for your time.

[dablan]

Hey,
no worries.

If your system doesn't like a higher res, then go ahead and try the 512, but with a higher radiosity setting. You need to see how this works - as it's very cool, and a time saver too.

Regards,
Dan Ablan
AGA Digital Studios. Inc.
www.3dgarage.com

[brtk]

btw,
if you run into "polys are all on the bottom 3/4 of the UV map" problem you can use Normalize Map tool - it stretches UVmap perfectly into UV space - try it with default settings and you´ll see what I mean. And yes, 512 map size means width 512 by 512 high.