Normal map UV issues....

[system]

So i have a problem. its been awhile since ive done normal mapping in zbrush, but im running into a problem i just cant seem to fix… I start my modeling in max and shift back and forth to zbrush until placement of the model is correct and i wish to begin detailing. at this point i would unwrap it as editable poly in max and export as an obj using the zbrush export from the list of options.

im almost positive uvs are coming through correctly. doing a uv check reveals nothing new… ill show examples.

this is the detail of the model.

And this is the uv layout in max

This is the normals generated and the settings used

why is it faceted?

these were my import settings…

it seems as though faces are also jumbled, meaning that left right top bottom on the normal map shading is reversed between various edges.

I was once a pro at this. but that was a little while ago, not too long, but did something serious change in the way uvs are done?

any ideas?

Attachments

[system]

A couple things come to mind:

Turn on the SNormals button, this smooths the normals on the low res mesh when creating a normal map

Check to see if the UV’s are facing the right direction, try to FlipV on the UV map and regenerate the map.

Use xNormal to generate a normal map and see if there is anything wrong with the mesh itself. Sometimes, I use a blend of the zbrush normal map and xnormal version because the method is a bit different

[system]

yea, i checked the faces and they all face out as they should. ive jumped through all the hoops i did long ago and nothing has fixed them… im almost assuming the best way around it is to redo the model or something.

Instead, and to stay productive i have just started using xNormal with much success…

if someone were to figure out the problem i would love to know a definitive answer… But xNormal will work for now. it just gets to me whenever i need to pickup another (even free) app to do something i can do in several other places… like normal mapping… and topology… even unwrapping (xNormal, Topogun, and Headus UVLayout)… and ive never been good at texturing in z so throw photoshop up there… i sculpt in zbrush… that is all…