Normal map problems

Futashia

I'm very new to zbrush and 3d modelling in general. One thing i've been struggling constantly for a while now is to get normal maps working.

I got a few books and I checked the forums on how to do it, but when I followed the steps, I end up with something like this (see image). I know
I've probably done something wrong but I have absolutely NO IDEA what it is. If anyone can help me out, that would be much appreciated!

Kurt Russell Fan Club

Which steps are you following?

I wouldn't bake it using zbrush, I'd have a lowpoly model and a highpoly model and bake using xnormal. The lowpoly should be unwrapped and your normal map looks kind of crazy probably because it doesn't look UV unwrapped.

Bek

Also your low poly seems to just be your model at the lowest subdivision. If you're going to make a model for real-time use, your low poly will need to be properly retopologised. Then you can make the UV's, bake normal maps. See this page: http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=show&redirect=Normal+Map#Tangent-Space_vs._Object-Space

Ruz

try turning on adaptive in the normal map dialogue

hiredblade

There is not enough information to solve this problem. But from the looks of it, your normal map UVs are totally bad. unwrap the mesh from scratch and make an even bake.

Provide these next time;
Low poly topology/wireframe
Uv templates

cryrid

My money is going on your UV's exceeding the 0:1 UV space, or touching it's border. That usually tells MME to use a different texture, but the result more often than not results in faces stretching across the map like this. You can try a Tool: Texture Map: New From UV check to see if any errors pop up.

The solution is just to scale them down a bit so that everything is within the 0:1 square and it should be fine.