hello,
i have been having difficulties getting my normal maps to look good in max. as far as i can tell the normal maps zbrush is rendering are ok although i can see some bad things happening (operator error im sure).
heres some pics of the high and low res model with the same normal maps being used. i cant figure out where all these lines and distortions are coming from in the low res max mesh with normal map applied.
any ideas are welcome…
thanks!!
What are the export settings that you’re using when you export from Max? If not these then give them a whirl instead.
hmm i tired those settings and it doesnt seem to make a difference. however im not using the mesh from zb just the normal map and then placing it onto the original mesh in max.
heres a pic of the normal map i created with the settings u provided.
any further insight would be greatly appreciated.
did u use a morph target for generating?
yea, i used all the steps laid out in the practical guide and used the prescribed obj settings.
import uvw mapped mesh into zb > set morph target > subdivide > import texture > sculpt > go back to lowest subdivision lvl > switch target > create tangent normal map > flip texture > export texture as normal map.
my uvw map.
ok, don’t switch to your morph target. create your normal map from subdiv 1.
Or, what I do to make ABSOLUTELY SURE the base mesh is the original…is I import the original .obj file into the sub 1 level. It generally works for me. I know this is what the Switch is meant to do, but I generally got better results this way.
But in my learning process for exactly what you are trying to do I never got the artifacts that you have…so I dunno. shrugs
Are you using mirrored UV’s too? DOesn’t ZBrush have issues with that?? If so delete half the head and try that.
i’ve had massive banding problems with morph targets in max…
u can’t use mirrored uv’s in zbrush, cause zbrush handles it like overlapps.
u have to paint only one half of your geo/model.
hey guys i appreciate the help… i found out what it was and im embarrassed to say it but i will anyway in case any other struggling newb has the same problem.
the reason the normal map looked ok in zb but not max is: i had it settup the wrong way in the max material editor. 
i had ‘bitmap’ settup as the bump map instead of ‘normal bump’. :rolleyes:
sry and thx again.