Baking normal in Object space: Bake Material Tag V.S. BakeTexture()

justinleduc

Hey guys,

I'm trying to understand why the normal map baked (in object space) by the Bake Material tag is different from the one that is baked by the the SDK (using the InitBakeTexture() and BakeTexture() functions) when they are seemingly both given the same parameters.

In both cases (the Bake Material tag and the SDK functions), these are my settings:

Width: 1024
Height: 1024
Channel: Normal (active)
Source (inside of the Normals sub-section): Object whose normals are being baked
Method: Object (default)

The Base Material tag gives me this:

While the InitBakeTexture() and BakeTexture() functions give me this:

Unless I am wrong, the result yielded by the Bake Material tag seems to be the most accurate and favorable one (in terms of color spectrum). Am I wrong?

Here is an excerpt of my C++ code:

BaseContainer settings;
settings.SetInt32(BAKE_TEX_WIDTH, 1024);
settings.SetInt32(BAKE_TEX_HEIGHT, 1024);
settings.SetInt32(BAKE_TEX_PIXELBORDER, 0);
settings.SetBool(BAKE_TEX_CONTINUE_UV, true);
settings.SetBool(BAKE_TEX_USE_PHONG_TAG, true);
settings.SetVector(BAKE_TEX_FILL_COLOR, Vector(0.0));
settings.SetBool(BAKE_TEX_NORMAL, true);
settings.SetBool(BAKE_TEX_NORMAL_METHOD_OBJECT, true);

BAKE_TEX_ERR err;

BaseDocument* bakeDoc = InitBakeTexture(doc, (TextureTag*)textureTag, (UVWTag*)uvwTag, nullptr, settings, &err, nullptr);

// Check if initialization was successful
if (err != BAKE_TEX_ERR::NONE)
    return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION, "Failed to initialize baking of the normal map."_s);

// Prepare bitmap for baking
MultipassBitmap* normalMap = MultipassBitmap::Alloc(1024, 1024, COLORMODE::RGBw);
if (!normalMap)
    return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION, "Could not allocate normal map."_s);

// Perform the bake for the normal map
BakeTexture(bakeDoc, settings, normalMap, nullptr, nullptr, nullptr);

// File path of the normal map
maxon::Url urlNormalMapResult{ "file:///C:/filepath/normal_map.png"_s };

normalMap->Save(MaxonConvert(urlNormalMapResult), FILTER_PNG, nullptr, SAVEBIT::NONE);

Note: I am currently assigning the color mode RGBw to normalMap. I have experimented a lot in that area and I have not been able to find any other COLORMODE or any other setting/enum for that matter that would get me closer to the normal map baked by the Base Material tag.

Any insight/guidance would be massively appreciated as always.

Thank you so much!

justinleduc

Thinking that the problem stemmed from the lack of color profile, I attempted to add the BAKE_TEX_COLORPROFILE enum to my settings, but I was unable to do so without it throwing an error upon the building of my solution.

My updated settings:

AutoAlloc<ColorProfile> colorProfile;
if (!colorProfile || !colorProfile->GetDefaultSRGB())
{
    return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION, "Failed to allocate or initialize the color profile."_s);
}

// Setup bake settings
BaseContainer settings;

// ...other settings removed for brevity...

settings.SetData(BAKE_TEX_COLORPROFILE, GeData(colorProfile));

Unfortunately, the additional line above (i.e. BAKE_TEX_COLORPROFILE) throws the following errors upon building my solution:

Error C2661: BaseContainer::SetData: no overloaded function takes 1 arguments
Error C2440: <function-style-cast>: cannot convert from AutoAlloc<ColorProfile> to GeData

I've been "fighting" with the SDK for the past hour while extensively reading the documentation, but I have yet to find a solution.

If my problem has nothing to do with the color profile, I guess that would also be good to know!

Thank you very much as always.

justinleduc

Whoopsies. I had forgotten this one setting:

settings.SetBool(BAKE_TEX_NORMAL_USE_RAYCAST, true);

It works as expected now.

Apologies!

This matter is now resolved.

i_mazlov

Hi @justinleduc ,

Great to hear your issue was resolved! Special thanks on sharing your solution with the community!

Regarding compiling issues you had:

Error C2440: <function-style-cast>: cannot convert from AutoAlloc<ColorProfile> to GeData

The AutoAlloc wrapper is just a convenient wrapper for a raw pointer. Hence, to fix your issue you just had to dereference the pointer:

CheckState(colorProfile);
settings.SetData(BAKE_TEX_COLORPROFILE, GeData(*colorProfile));

Cheers,
Ilia