Lightmaps are trashed

Hi!

If you want realistic result you’ll have to break up your mesh into smaller parts! Every column, top part, bottom part.
And maybe you can get away with 256 lightmap resolution per column (!!) and 512 for the flat parts. …but more likely you’ll need the higher step…
Auto generated lightmaps are good for flat surfaces only! Unreal Studio does an almost perfect job though!
You will have to do it manually…

If you just want to light it up and have a blurred out cartoonish look then you can set the lightmap resolution very low… but still you might have to redo your lightmaps manually…

Hello. I’m trying to setup my modular meshes to start building, but I’m running into several problems. My main problem atm is trying to build lightmaps. Settings I have changed: Lightmap res = 256, source lightmap index = 1, dest lightmap index = 1.

Here are some screenshots.

  1. Normal Mesh
  2. Mesh after baking light
  3. Texture UV
  4. Lightmap UV (auto made from Blender “Lightmap pack”)

This is just the most complex of the meshes but I thought if this is messed up, so will the others. I should try a flat windowed wall or something and check back :slight_smile:

Well basically wherever you have a “cut” (lightmap uv) on your object there is a possibility that you’ll have those artifacts. Higher lightmap resolution helps to make them smaller/disappear… if you know the mesh won’t be visible from certain angles, you can “hide” those seams there…

Well it is kinda better for the simpler meshes. But I still got visual glitches. I wish it was easier to map for lightmaps but I guess I’ll have to redo all of it.

Is there any way that you know to make lightmaps in blender easier? Especially for such complex meshes? I can’t find any tutorial on it, mostly just boxes and I don’t really know how to translate it.

Sorry I can’t help you with tutorials! :S If you’re willing to put energy into Unreal then with practice you will know exactly how to “cut up” an object…
“Rules”: have as least as possible cuts, keep continuos faces together, have cuts at corners/hard edges/hidden areas.

  • oh yeah: no overlapping, need to have proper spacing between uv islands, you can stretch/distort the islands when packing, you can exclude parts that not visible in the scene…

And grid align too I guess? It’s one of the advice I found online. Thanks for all the help!