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Zbrush normal map and texture map not lining up

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Well basically im having a problem with my Zbrush normal map and texture map not lining up back in maya.

This is the third model ive done in zbrush and they have all had this same issue in certain areas of the model. This has happened so often it seems to be a very common problem. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

What I did to help this problem on my last models were to add geometry to the low rez mesh and re-import back into zbrush, let it bake the detail back on to the low rez, fix any anomalies that occur and then export again back into maya.

But the problem is this is increasing my poly count unnecessarily, also it doesn’t completely fix the problem; merely makes it look more passable, and requires many many extra steps from me and causes more errors.

I have also tried unwrapping again and again in different ways trying to fix it. The textures look fine but the normal map distorts in just certain areas, hopefully someone can help I’m kind of at my wits end.

#2

What settings are you using in the Tool >> Normal Map menu? Have you tried toggling Adaptive and/or SmoothUV?

#3

Im using tangent, smooth uv, and Snormals.

I havent tried that on this one but i did on one of the other characters and it didnt make a difference.

#4

yah even tryng different setting combinations the normal map still doesnt line up with the textures back in maya.

#5

Does anyone have a solution? I’m sure others have experienced this problem… o.o

#6

Since no one has a solution, ill post the only thing I found that works is; lining up the normal map and texture map in Photoshop and using the liquify filter, using the texture map as a guide i bend what doesn’t line up into the correct position.

#7

Do you have pictures of the difference, or an example mesh where this happens?

I wouldn’t recommend altering normal maps by hand