Modular asset texture vs Normal maps

Spiffy

Not sure if this is a stupid question/technique but I've run into a few issues while making modular assets with the normal maps

I was planning on creating a few walk way panels with model variations but using the same textures between the variations.



As you can see the normal maps look fine with the straight piece but are distorted when I apply a deform modifier. Is there anyway to fix this or are there any work arounds?

divi

more geo (maybe control edges) in your straight piece so you don't get as many gradients in the normal map as you have now, which will result in errors once you deform your mesh and the shading changes. it's unlikely that you'll be able to get rid of any and all errors on a baked, deformed mesh, but you can definitely reduce their size.

EarthQuake

Triangulation is the main problem here, you're getting X shaped smoothing errors which means your triangulation does not match the baked geometry.

If max, just make sure to export in triangles, not quads
If maya, lock mesh normals first, then triangulate before exporting

It still may not be perfect after fixing the triangulation issue, but it will probably be good enough. Any time you alter a mesh like this after the initial bake, you're altering the lowpoly mesh normals. The normal map is baked to those exact mesh normals, which may cause problems if altered significantly.