Hi Devs, even though I like the direction of the SkinGen Premium but overall I'm not happy with my purchase.. it could be way better than it is using displacement.
I know from experience in order to create the bumpy look with normal maps that you need to have a hi & low poly version of the model in order to create the normal maps but this is also the same method to create the corresponding displacement maps -Since you have the project files to create the normal maps, the displacement could/should be made available. Maybe you have to first program the ovrride for the displacement channel?
I consider displacement maps equally essential and I thought they would of been provided with the purchase. The characters I create are often larger and non human and would benefit from displacement especially with masking options they could blend into each other. The displacement channel by default would simply need an override to display combined displacement maps in the channel when the SkinGen is loaded.
Things like scars, neck and hand tendons, viens, wrinkles, pores etc could be far more realistic using displacement maps and are urgently needed.
If you can do this AND PLEASE DO, this would be a game changer for your SkinGen Premium. I really don't understand why it wasn't added.. maybe you ran out of dev time for the release? I hope you add/update it soon, thank you for what you've done so far.
Lastly If people choose to add displacement, perhaps it's set automatically enable smooth mesh by subdivision if it needs extra geometry in order to keep the UV groups from separating.
Even in games, displacement is vital. As Previously mentioned displacement in VR can be very believable.
sputknick
100% agree. I am very disappointed with normals. Really expected displacement.
Ascensi
@Reallusion Do you Layer Normal Maps in SkinGen without shifting pixels on a particular axis? many of us think there is something wrong with the normal maps layers coming out looking like someone painted shadows on the textures and this is more apparent by moving the lighting, the angle doesn't seem to change. This might help lead you in the right direction to improve normals and layering https://beta.friendlyshade.com/normalizer It can convert normals to displacement textures and maybe something like this built into SkinGen might help.
Ascensi
I've attached a closeup image showing no seams with proper AO & roughness maps but while this video is demonstrating animation without wear & tear I didn't include the roughness & ao which looks a lot better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4p0EnZaf6w I'd be interested in working with Reallusion to make this happen.. I know why SkinGen isn't yet ready and what needs to happen.. all my experimentation and deep testing has accumulated to this moment.. now I can create amazing creatures with full detail and it should be possible in Character creator.. you have almost all the frame work built into CC3 to make it happen, I know what it's missing and how to make it happen, hopefully with not too much coding effort -you already have the code used in other places within CC3. Full Seamless Displacement Animated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4p0EnZaf6w
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Ascensi
I just uploaded a video of a CC3 plus character in Character creator with a 4k SkinGen material baked with no cracks! I copied the baked normal map as the displacement map and adjusted the texture with 1.0 softness applied. Next I edited the displacement map in photoshop and did a quick & dirty mirror so the left & right edges match up, that is all! Reallusion should be able to provide a mask or a way to make a smooth* pixel transition that crosses over without abrupt differences of light and dark on the back of the left and right side down the middle. The texture doesn't need to be symmetric, the pixel light/dark values should just transition with the same tone as it crosses over -it almost does it by the default normal map so something tells me either the layers of normal maps stacked produce artifacts (apparently you can just layer normals on top of each other) This tool "https://beta.friendlyshade.com/normalizer " combines normal maps mathematically correct by converting all pixels to vectors before any operation rather than blending. Maybe CC3 doesn't do any conversion and just layers and hope it looks right.
