Black normal map spots

Hello!
I have some serious problem with my normal maps. Even if I turn them softer or harder, they generate black area on my meshes

Here you can find a screen of my rock with a normal map.

I have a directional light plus a sky light with an hdr, no GI.

How can I solve this? Why is this happening?

Thank you very much!

http://s29.postimg.org/iqqseq6d3/scr.jpg

How are you generating the normal maps, like what software? You should soften them and also decrease contrast, they’re pretty intense, at least in that image.

I am using Quixel. I tried lowing the contrast but I lose a lot of the detail…

I also use quixel, are you using the default normal map generator or are you using one of the normal-presets? I find it’s kind of a balancing game between intensity for detail but softness for quality. If you use too much contrast to see the detail in just the normal map texture, it causes those black spots because the, “divets,” in the normal map are so intensely defined. If you want to maintain sharpness in your normals/texture details but don’t want those intense dark spots, try playing around with Levels in photoshop, to make your contrast in your albedo/diffuse texture more cleanly defined. It’ll show well on your normal maps as well, because the normal map kinda compliments the details in the diffuse texture, as opposed to being solely responsible for them.

The image is too small to tell, but make sure that your normal map is set to use normal map compression in UE4
You can have it automatically detect normal maps by adding “_normal” to the end of your file name as well

I am using zbrush for high poly, then maya for low poly, then i bake base normal and AO with xnormal and import them all with the mesh inside ddo. I create the material and I let the new material influence the existing normals (the ones I got from zbrush) then I simply click export maps on ddo and I apply all to my material in unreal… I could get the green channel of the normal, set it on multiply on my albedo and soften the normal, this could be a solution maybe?
The problem is that in the mesh viewer inside Unreal, I DON’T see these black spots… my normals are exactly as I want them to be! The problem occurs when I hit play, maybe there is some problem on the light or texture settings?
My normal import is set on normalmap (DXT5, BC5 on DX11)

That is because the mesh editor previewer uses a kind of dynamic lighting for the viewport.
I guess you are only seeing these dark spots with static lighting?
It looks like your normal maps are just driven beyond what is feasible. I see some whirte sposts in there.
A proper normal map shouldnt contain white.

I had this once myself where the values would make a pointlight look like a spotlight by muting all light in the hemisphere where the normal map vectors were “wrong”…
Notice how the light behaves normal on the uniform colored surface…

de0d58df0507ab6b8168f7d2754a6dc4d1bf0a7a.jpeg

It took me a while to see how far you can push normal maps.
I use the NVIDIA plugin for photoshop to create them. They work like a charm :slight_smile:
https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

Yes but I can’t create the normal map with nVidia tool… they are a result of an accurate sculpt, it’s not just a color to normal passage :frowning:

Ah, ok. Cant you use zbrush to render out a heightmap or something simmilar and process that with PS…?

Alternatively: try attenuating your normal maps a little bit. Just multiply the R and G channels it by something less than 1 and set the B channel to 1.
That hould make it look a bit better. Although you already lost some details were the normal map has the white spots…

New day, new test.

Today I made a material.
I tested it on two projects opened simultaneously.
On the left you can see the unreal 4 base project, with a directional light.
On the right you can see my project, directional plus skylight.
The directionals have the same settings.
The material is THE SAME.
Even the post process.

Why in my project I see the normals in this way and in the base project they seem ok?
I can’t solve this, I am just going crazy60d61e72911b01d3df954f0d73c2cbb5410ecd52.jpeg

Make sure you also have a reflection capture in the scene.

Actually, as I said I am using movable lighting for a day/night cycle: directional plus sky light. Isn’t the reflection capture just for static lighting?