Normal mapping edge problem

marul

Hi everyone. I'm working on a weapon model for my dota2 contest entry and this is my first time using normal maps. I've read a lot about normal mapping and figured out most of it right but I couldn't get rid of the baking errors on the edges of that model. I'll be grateful if you could tell me how I can get rid of those.

Thanks in advance.

Close-up on the problematic area:



Whole model:



UVW layout (mirrored) and normal map:



Edit: I forgot to say I'm using 3ds Max 2012 and these are screenshots within max viewport.

EarthQuake

What does the lowpoly without normal map look like?

I would try assigning smoothing groups to each of your uv islands(so you get hard edges on your uv borders). It looks like the extreme angles on your lowpoly are causing smoothing errors.

marul

yeah you're probably right. There was only 1 smoothing group in that model, I then tried 3 different versions (each with different sets of smoothing groups) and none of them had this particular problem. Thanks for the help.