Black normal map spots

[Iacopo_Antonelli]

@hippowombat;323226

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.

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)