[Blender] Pixelation on Bake

[Chic Aeon]

On 6/11/2018 at 1:16 PM, Spinell said:

I'm starting to consider switching if it would get rid of this pixalated mess... (I'll save it for a last resort maybe)

Just replying to you so that you will see this notification. I think we did finally solved your particular pixelated issue. This does NOT solve the pixelated edges on curves (or along curved vertices within an island). So read the rest of the story if you gave up on this thread. 

 

 

[OptimoMaximo]

@Chic Aeon Try if there's a noticeable difference if you change the bounces in render settings to lower/higher values while keeping this same lighting set up. That might be the answer also to remove noise =)

[Chic Aeon]

2 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

@Chic Aeon Try if there's a noticeable difference if you change the bounces in render settings to lower/higher values while keeping this same lighting set up. That might be the answer also to remove noise =)

I did a lot of that and it seemed to make no difference. While I don't remember, these settings (not the lights) might have been what the other guys (not Blender users either) pointed me to before. It SEEMS like they should make a difference but apparently not much for me. What I am working on, how I work.  No clue. Obviously all the settings were put in there for SOMEONE, but Blender is a HUGE program.  

The change in lighting though will be extremely helpful. Will see how it works on more "normal for me" items.  But it is obvious that it does a MUCH better job. 

Thanks again. 

Always good to learn more. 

[OptimoMaximo]

8 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

I did a lot of that and it seemed to make no difference.

Well perhaps they might be more important when you will have an indoor scene to bake. Don't forget to try it when you get a chance.

On a side note, just a floor like in your picture doesn't really help too much if you don't have any walls, as the chances of bouncing back towards the object isn't that high this way, also considering the light being perfectly perpendicular to the floor. But hey, you got an improvement, so thumbs up!

Would love to see what you come up next using your newly acquired knowledge, the improvement stats and the actual finished item too =)

 

[OptimoMaximo]

@Chic Aeon Out fo curiosity, i downloaded Blender 2.78. DId you play with these settings down here?

Because THESE look VERY similar to the render settings Maya offers within Arnold renderer. If you haven't, let me know, i can explain to you how this thing works as i'm playing with it and it's pretty consistent with Arnold's working method

 

EDIT: turning the "Square Samples" checkbox makes it work exactly as Arnold does.

Edited June 13, 2018 by OptimoMaximo
typo

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, OptimoMaximo said:

On a side note, just a floor like in your picture doesn't really help too much if you don't have any walls, as the chances of bouncing back towards the object isn't that high this way, also considering the light being perfectly perpendicular to the floor. But hey, you got an improvement, so thumbs up!

That plane is mostly so that the bottom of the "object" is darker and some ambient shadows reach the bottom of the "object", more sometimes than this time :D. Also I have tried with NO plane and the light doesn't bounce up at all -- hence a very odd look - LOL.   I normally have several suns up top at angles but sometimes on cylindrical things (and maybe this is a Blender thing) the reflections can be very bad. I don't remember WHY exactly I placed this sun at a 90 degree angle, but this isn't my normal set up so there must have been some issues and hence a change. 

 

Re the sampling area, I have in the past changed those  settings but mostly to get rid of fireflies (which happily I don't have any more) and other lighting issues.

But my options don't look like yours -- not sure why. [Note: OK I lost the strikethrough option GRR - but found the difference -- BRANCH TRACING and no I don't think I ever played with the samples in that area only clamp and seed and such. ]

 

 

Meanwhile along my better baking journey, I accomplished this yesterday (well three days really) and was VERY happy with it. I baked it more like a scene rather than what I think of as an object. When things are furniture I really don't like having "set" shadows (even ambient ones of they are strong) so I try for an overall even bake except for the places where it would be dark naturally no matter what directional light is being used ala Windlight.  

This isn't fancy lighting (although I obviously know how to do that). It was taken with  my "nuetral 2" setting which has no shadows and basically white light (my building Windlight).   So making progress. 

I am not sure that changing any of those settings (since I have done this exercise before) is really going to make a huge difference with what I am making. BUT the change in the lamps was instantaneous and super easy. Whew.

 I might try some walls for bounce and that might be better. I used to use a curved backdrop on one side but gave that up for some reason. 

 

Raw shot, shadowless lighting. I am very happy with it.  So onward. Thanks again. 

Edited June 13, 2018 by Chic Aeon

[OptimoMaximo]

@Chic Aeon well over there you can find the AA (AntiAliasing) samples which might help improving the pixellation issue on diagonals

 

[Chic Aeon]

5 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

@Chic Aeon well over there you can find the AA (AntiAliasing) samples which might help improving the pixellation issue on diagonals

 

OK. Tried and failed :D.   Didn't help the jagged edges. My overall BAKE is much better now though so making new default scenes and such. Will see if I like appending node groups better than appending materials (which of course include the node groups so very similar in function). And will try some "walls" the next time I bake something small.  All good. 

*******************************

When I did a NEW search of this issue just now, most of the "answers" were to bake at 4096 and then resize (not unless I buy a new computer :D)  OR to "fix" in the compositor.

Meanwhile, the same search brought up my old thread so pasting in here for reference.  It seems like we have covered the options that are available NOW. Hopefully this issue will get better OR some super smart Blender Cycles person will figure it out and add to this thread in the future!  

I also just tried baking at 1024 resolution to see if that would solve the problem, but no. To save someone the trouble, here is a close up screenshot of what I got at 1024 with the same settings that were the most successful so far

 

Older thread on this is here:  

 

[OptimoMaximo]

@Chic Aeon ah well, we tried all that was possible... fortunately some meaningful improvement came up, although not as significant as i initially hoped  

[Spinell]

Wow.... Thanks for the huge help guys. It still haven't read EVERYTHING yet but the lighting tricks seem particularly interesting and might indeed solve my issue. The tests I was doing in the opening post have very very basic lighting set so I didn't think it would affect pixalation. So I'll play with that and perform my bakes on a high rez texture and the resize in photoshop. I've never heard of this neatest neighbour option, so thanks for that rip as well!

I'll probably do my new tests during this weekend, when I have a bit of time finally.

[Chic Aeon]

Just an addendum.  Above (can't edit) I put in a link to a post about appending Node Groups.  I tried those instructions just now (they seemed pretty straight-forward when reading) and there is NO NODE GROUP in the files as mentioned. I THEN looked to see that this was a post from 2012 and it is most likely about Blender Render, not Blender Cycles.  But even switching to Blender Render I cannot find any Node Groups to append. 

Soooo -- You can easily get a node group ALONG WITH the materials if you APPEND a material.  The complete node group gets added into the materials listing as well as the textures used in the grouping and the texture baked to (you will want to change that most likely).

Sorry for the misdirection. 

[PinkSamurai Fairlady]

I know this is an old thread but I found it while looking for a solution to the same problem. 

 

I found a solution to my jagged edges problem and I am not sure if anyone has already mentioned it or not as I haven't read every word in the thread.

 

My mesh was super simple and I had no problems with a small size bake 512x5212 until I started experimenting with different things to do with lighting and the nodes. However trying to simplify things back to how they originally were didn't work, which was strange. But finally this is what worked:-

1. Baking on a bigger texture 1024x1024  that was suggested in this thread and elsewhere on the web helped a little but still.
2. This is the real culprit. The margin is usually 16 by default. I brought it down to 3 or 5 and forgot about it, and to be honest, I didn't even think that it would be the cause. But, as soon as I brought it back up to 13 or 16 the jagged edges disappeared. I hope this can help someone.