Ok lets try 1 more thing. You might have the UVW’s inverted there. Open an unwrap and you can do a select inverted faces option. See if the arms are inverted.
You can email me the model if you want that I can do some tests on. Just the base low poly mesh would be all I need, I can do some quick Z paintin on it. Up to you.
Ok, I selected the inverted uv’s (thanks for that, I had no idea that was an option) and while there are some inverted uv’s, there’s a grand total of 3 of them for both arms (2 on one, one on the other), and none of them are anywhere near the shoulder seams.
Here’s the lowpoly .max file for you. If anyone wants to download this thing, and see if they can come up with a setting, or reason why this is happening, please grab it, and post your results. Thanks.
ReplicA -
A preset is what will get rid of the seams. Presets are a collection of settings. Once you have the settings for Max 8 you will not have to alter them again. Just select them as a preset.
Let me put your mind somewhat at ease. I doubt there is anything wrong with your UVs or your model. What you are seeing I have seen several times while establishing the correct settings. It is par for the course. What you are seeing is the result of the normal map not being generated with the correct settings for Max 8, nothing more, I promise! 
ZMapper is really a very powerful solution because you can save these settings as presets and share them with other people. Once you establish what Max 8 requires then you do not have to deal with the settings again.
This is really one of the most powerful aspects in a production setting. I have been to several game studios and tangent space normal maps are very confusing for people who have to deal with them and make them on a daily basis. We are at the edge of a frontier here (to steal a little something from Michael Isner. )
I have known artists to spend more time on their normal maps then on their sculpt! The goal of ZMappers configurations is to remove that. Deal with the sculpt, select your settings, generate normal map, go home to mansion on hill and take ferrarri out for evening drive.
That said, I understand the confusion. I have had the expert pass settings explained to me by guys who looked very serious and very smart (read: hadn’t shaved in a few days, distracted look in their eyes and hair that looks like part of their cerebellum escaped through pores in their head and was twisting its way to freedom) and I am still at a loss. It was like being in Charley Brown and hearing an adult talking.
That said I was the one to establish the Headus settings through a disciplined 4 hour testing of various settings. If I can do it then I am convinced that anyone can!
So, until Rodney King’s words ring true and we all CAN get along then onward you Pixol angles! Lets see some configuration settings! 
Cheers,
Ryan
Replica - Ok I got it I am not sure why but for some reason you need to flipRed(x) in max’s normal map setting. That should do it with my preset. I have no idea why your model would need that and all mine don’t but, who cares It works
On a side note you have a lot of overlapping faces in your UVW, thats a no-no
Ryan, thanks for that. I must apologize for something, I think I must have given you the impression I’ve never worked with normal maps before, or I don’t know what I’m talking about (admittedly I am often wrong, but…), and that’s not the case. I may have mis-spoke, I meant presets, not settings. I’m no expert, and don’t wanna come across as a know-it-all, cause I really don’t, I just want to clear that up.
jbrophy, I’ll give that a try a little later. Right now, I have a huge headache, and am getting nauseous, so I’m done for the night. I do REALLY appreciate your help, though. About the uv’s, where exactly do you see overlapping? I tried to pack 'em as tight as I could (I’m no uv geek, just try to get the job done), but I didn’t see any overlapping. Ah well, I guess it’s no big deal as I can re-do the uv’s, and re-import the low poly back to ZB anyway, but I would like to know what you mean.
I am off to bed, as I get worse everytime I try to write a word here… I apologise to anyone I may have pissed off in this reply, it was not intended, I promise. Good night, and good luck. 
Yay! It worked, jbrophy. I just tried it, and it looks great. Thank you sooo much for that.
Sometimes I get some whacky results with my models, and I have no idea why. A couple models back, ZB refused to re-import a model I had done, even though they had the exact same number of poly’s\verts in the exact same places. All I had done was mess with the uv’s. On my last model, everytime I exported a model from ZB to Max, I got random flipped normals all over the place for no apparent reason. I’ve learned to live with things like that, cause there’s just no telling why they happen, or when they’re gonna pop up. But after that weirdness happens, and I’ve finished the model, I can’t replicate the error with another model, no matter how hard I try. Weird, but true.
Anyway, thanks again. I’ll get back to work now.
i’ve tried all max presets in diffrent variations, but i still can’t get rid of the seams.
maybe the uvs have to follow the the right direction. means, if your arms show to the bottom, u’ll have to set your uvs also in the same direction too.> no rotatiing and verical flipping?
mirrored uvs still doesn’t work correctly. after severial hours i got the best results in spliting the mesh into 2 id parts and flip red/green on one half and green on the other half, but there are still a few illuminating errors with tangent normals.
Did you try the Max 8 preset that jbrophy upped in this very thread? I had the same problem you’re having (fromt hat rather vague description), and I had to use the Max 8 preset, and flip the red channel in Max. That gave me almost perfect normal maps.
That is a good question
Replica - Glad it all worked out for you. Now get to work, not make something to impress us all
I have tried numerous times to install this plug-in. I get the error message that Pixologic can’t open because it can’t find the dat.mem files. WindowsXP Ceneron R
It there another way to install, when I follow the directions nothing shows up in my Z-Plug folder, any help for a newbie would be appreciated. Thanking you in advance.
SpriteD-
Your C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush2\ZStartup\ZPlugs folder should have the file: “ZMapper.zsc” and a folder called “ZMapperData”.
You must unzip the file that you download and then move the items above to that folder.
Hope that helps.
r
Perhaps worth repeating for new users that the ZBrush2\ZStartupZPlugs folder needs to be created with new installations of ZBrush.
Ok thanks!!! I did finally get the Z-plug installed, progress yes.
Now when I try to use it I get the following error messages.
GL_Invalid_ELUM:
No GL_Ext_testure_dat3 support!
Where am I going wrong.
Thanks for any and all assistance.
I’ve seen Dat3 used in the context of graphics card detection, but the sources I’ve seen are not authoritative. What are your system specs SpriteD?
In the Zmapper document it is suggested that you can roll the cavity-shader effect into the normalmap.
However if I create 2 normalmaps from the same object.
One with cavity intensity and coverage set to 0 and the other set to 1/4, 1/2, or whatever…
When I compare both normal maps…there is absolutely no difference.
The normalmaps are the same with or without cavity shading on.
Did I misunderstood the document then?
I mean I am already very happy that I can extract a separate cavity map
(nice to put in your diffuse/specular/specularpower map).
Also the normalmaps are a lot more detailed then with the old normalmap
extraction proces (Is that the raycasting?) which is very cool !
A minor nag about interface design…I prefer some highlight/action effect
when I click a button…however when I click the make normalmap or make cavity map button…nada happens…
Also I don’t understand why the introduction of a new symbol for “progress bar” (the “very aliased” circle)…when you already introduced the horizontal progress bar at top of screen ??? Keep it clean…keep it simple…
but like I said …that’s just an old man nagging 
Zmapper is definately worth it’s money (oh…it’s free)…thanks 
[color=Black]Hi Guys.
Firstly Using MAYA 7
AMD 2400+ ( i know old)
1GB of RAM
Ati 9600XT vid Card
WIN XP Pro SP2
Ok i grabbed zmapper & it looks amazing and i see all these people creating amazing art, so why cant i??? lol & i am reletively new to Normal Maps still
ok ok now to my questions… My Model has 4 seperate UV Maps & i found out that you have to only have those selected UV Groups/UV map to do each Normal map.
When i open Zmapper it comes in inverted ( same as when i first import my .OBJ to Zbrush) i leave it that way so i know i don have to reflip again when i export back out. Or do i have to?
Maybe i overlooked this part in the Zmapper.Doc but when i create a tangent normal map ( following the 8 step mini tut) it shows light on 1 side in Zmapper and my body part ( single UV map) is upside down, do i have to flip it for the normal map to work???
After making the normal map, i go back to Zbrush Alpha pallet and the texture pallete all i see is White texture( is this right??)
After that i export that “white” texture to use in MAYA 7 i make a shader & attach it to the model, i then proceed to input the newly made Normal Map into the bump input of the shader node i assigned to the model, i go to do a quick render and “all i get is an even more blockier model”. Do i have to render with Mental Ray like Dismaps?Shouldnt it just work in maya software renderer???
On my model i had the face normals on soft so they looked more rounded “would this affect it?” i thought it would be more liking to the normal map created giving it a more organic look?
Is there somthing for e.g a plugin i need for MAYA 7 to veiw these Normal Maps???
Ok guys thanks in advance for your help
As Ryan said it :
IT NOT BECAUSE YOU SEE A BIG SEEM IN YOUR NORMAL TEXTURE, THAT YOU WILL HAVE SEAM IN THE ENGINE.
The engine result might be totally different from what you imagine from the texture… Sometime, the normalmap compensate a UV orientation by applaying oposite colors, to match seams back in the engine.
When I follow the directions, I get error messages about GL the plugin freezes. I don’t get the Panel in my screen. I am wondering if I didn’t get a good d/l. Can anyone help me.
I do get my model to load, but then everything freezes and I can go no further.
Sorry guys, it’s got me baffled why it makes it even more blocky ( not face normals to soft)
Anyone have any idea’s for me, all are welcomed.
thanks in advance
Windows XP 586, plenty of RAM and Memory 80 gig. all of Z-brush and I also use Poser 6 run fine, just can’t get the Z-mapper to perform. Thanks in advance. :rolleyes: