Baking Maps from Exploded World Space Normal on Collapsed Model

oXYnary

I bake my normals using the exploded method to a object/world space* normal map.  I then convert that to a tangent space after final low poly optimization and collapse the model back together for painting via substance/ddo.

My question is can I use the world/object space normal map in my material makers world/object space normal map spot based off the exploded version even if I'm painting the collapsed version?  Mind you, nothing is rotated in the exploded version, just moved apart.  Or do I need to bake a new object/world normal map for the collapsed version from the tangent I created from the exploded?

Especially for this inquiry, can I use maps baked from the exploded version for the position and curvature map on the collapsed?

Theory wise, I'm hoping because all sub objects are still oriented correctly, that using the exploded object space normal map and position/curvature based off that won't mess up the material makers math.  Only the tangent (and AO) have to specifically have  been built from the collapsed model.

Correct?  *crosses fingers*  Sure would lower the amount of textures and bakes I need when creating materials.

*Xnormal vs Substance names.

Scruples

You'll be fine using the obj-space-nm-map and curvature from the exploded.
reusing the position map won't match but for most materials that use it to control directional smearing it should be fine.
AO doesn't necessarily have to be baked from the collapsed model either, some people (including me) prefer to use a combination of the exploded bake and collapsed and finally, Tangent space should be baked from the exploded, it will be exactly the same no matter where in space it is as long as the vertex normals haven't been altered.

I gotta ask how you don't know this all already, you've been around for a while @oXYnary

oXYnary

Thanks, I knew about the tangent having to be from the OS exploded version.  Weirdly the position map did match between the exploded/non exploded version, it was visually colored the same on both test bakes.  I'm guessing because position isn't doing distance versus just direction.

I have to do many different tasks, so I forget the basics sometimes when having to revisit another area.