I have a KeyShot for ZBrush 10.2 in use. My ZBrush exported models look good in the preview window, but when rendering, they are jagged. I’ve tried to change the model’s topology a few times in ZBrush and in KS, but no matter what I do and what resolution I use in KS, the image is still jagged. Any ideas?
Thanks
Hi Marcos, can you post an image of what you mean? I reckon you do have the anti-aliasing on in the render window?
The first image is the render, the second is the image I have on the viewer window that appears better than the render. The image was rendered with GPU rendering, denoise; the model has millions of polygons, and normals were edited. Not sure if you can see, but it is jagged all over the place. Not sure what is happening here. What I also noticed is that the thumb images for the environments and materials also appear jagged and low res. Not sure if that has something to do with that since I remember them not being that way before some upgrade, I believe.
thanks for your input.
It looks like the render size you used is really small at the first one. And you’re actually having it zoomed in at 180% or so, not like 200% else you wouldn’t see those verticale jagged/skipped pixels.
The viewport uses your actual screen size so seems that’s larger than the value you used in the render settings.
If you want you can sent me a PM with the model (via wetransfer.com) and I can check here what it does. Don’t think it’s something with the model itself, that looks cool!
The first picture is the rendered picture. I’ve purposefully rendered it small, thinking that the jagged lines would disappear. But the result is the same as you see it zoomed. But I think it might be a model size problem. However, I always take my models to Rhino which I trust more for precise measurements. And it’s in a mm scale. I didn’t used to have this problem before. The home setting of KS would do a great job and that is basically what I need. But these renderings are unacceptable. I’ll send you the model.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HWvR9u4oY3xbaV0jLWT5YNbXdrK617IS/view?usp=drive_link
Here’s a model created in ZBrush with high polygon count but having the same jagged results in KS
This one should work
I checked the model but besides the enormous amount of polygons there’s not much wrong with it. That is, how KS handles the model.
If I import this ring it shows weird edges and incorrect normal maps (those squares).
The normal maps you can fix by edit normals although it should also be possible to have ZBrush have to take care of it I expect (not a real ZBrush user).
The irregular edges could be on purpose and not sure if you mean those with ‘jagged edges’ in your question. But they are part of the imported model as you can see in this wireframe. If those are not on purpose it must be something with how you export the model.
If you did them on purpose I think you can better have ZBrush not exporting them as actual geometry which gives you a load of polygons but as a normal/height map. Of course, if you want to render the ring at really big sizes it could have benefits to have it as actual geometry but these bumps are so tiny, it only makes the object way more heavy than needed or you’ll ever notice/see.
After I corrected some normal maps this is the render which is basically how the model is. The irregular bumps at the thing (don’t know the English word) which holds the jewel are part of the model as said. KS can’t change that.
I can imagine you want those irregularities for some authentic feel but not sure if you mean those by the jagged edges or not. The wireframe image is a screenshot I took from MODO where I loaded your OBJ file but as you see it’s really so much geometry for a bit of ‘rough’ edges. And because the wireframe is so dense (lot of subdivisions), depending on the material, they are really obvious in render.
I rendered in black since that made them more obvious than when I would have used a chrome like material but just to know if those were the things you meant.
The problem is how the model is being exported to KS from ZB since this copy is a bridge-type software. No, the imperfections were not intentional. I wanted to have it as clean as possible in most cases. The name of that “thing” is Prong, by the way. The first picture you posted with the red highlights should not show those square subdivisions, and that let me know that ZB did not export what was on my window since I have subdivided it a few times. So that was to be corrected, maybe exporting a different kind of file. I never had that problem before. KS would take just about any kind of model and render a beautiful job. Thank you for your detailed assessment! I much appreciate that.
Hello @marcos.taquechel
I also taken a look at the OBJ and also found it to have irregular marks at the prong area. Instead of using the bridge, if you export the file from Zbrush into a OBJ, does the model also show the same irregularities?
Ah, prong, learned something again. I would try what Oliver says and export directly to OBJ or FBX. But it’s quite weird the geometry gets like this with the plugin. It’s almost that you had some texture applied which got translated into geometry on export. Like freezing a displacement map. Also because the ring itself is really smooth and has only a fraction of the geometry.
If you want me to take another look or at the ZBrush file itself, let me know. Can always install it and check whats happening, I’m curious.
I’ve also noticed some strange behavior in KS. And it makes me wonder if I need re install this version. The UI looks clanky and the thumb nails are low read. The computer fan goes on all the time on a powerful computer that didn’t used to do it before. I wonder how I could a perform a clean install?
Good question. I’m unsure if I can import files with this type of KS. You basically tell ZB to render with an external renderer ant it opens KS. I’ll try. Thanks for your help.
I’m not sure if you use CPU or GPU but if I have it on CPU I put it most of the time at 50% CPU else it also gets noisy. That’s fine since it just works at 100%.
If I have it no GPU I limit the amount of samples in the preferences to something like 128 so it won’t run unlimited if I’m figuring out some materials etc. Saves on the power bill as well.
It actually doesn’t matter how powerful the computer is, since KS will use all at 100% if wanted the more powerful the hotter things will get. Could also be that the computer has some dust build up in it’s cooling things and blow that out once in a while keeps things cooler as well.
I guess that is a clear call for me to clean that fan! Yes, I have GPU and will use your settings. Thanks
I am not super familiar with ZBrush as it is not one of the modeling software I have used, but it appears you can export models directly from ZBrush from the Tools panel. These are also the formats it seems it supports for exporting. Try FBX as I found that format works rather well with Keyshot.
After Exporting the FBX, import it into Keyshot from the FBX it kicks out and sees if the irregularities still arise. If they are still there, I am leaning towards issue with the actual model and maybe ZBrush is shading them smooth that you can’t see these imperfections in the mesh.
Thank you. Will try!
Nope. No significant change. I exported FBX, then imported back into ZBrush and rendered external. This is when ZBrush makes the bridge to KS. Again, in the viewer it looks almost acceptable but when render window comes up it is zagged city. Maybe a problem with the ZBrush bridge? Not sure. Should I re install KS to rule out any bugs? Thank you
I’m not sure what you mean by the ‘bridge’ part. I guess the export plugin from ZBrush itself? The idea of exporting to a fbx/obj is to actually skip the bridge part and just import the fbx/obj into KeyShot like you would do from any other program which doesn’t have a KeyShot plugin/bridge kind of thing.
That narrows down possibilities to the bridge itself. So the exported FBX you should just import into KeyShot using the ‘import’ option under file. I’ve the feeling the bridge is the problem.
Yes. Becasue when I exported the FBX file and imported it back into ZB it looked cleaner and smooth. But when bridged to KS there was no difference from all other jagged renders. What is puzzling is, why it looks good on the viewer but bad on the render when it should be the opposite. I might have to contact Pixologic I guess. Never had problems before and no matter what I threw in KS it always looked great.
