Map baking in Zbrush vs. Xnormal

Jonathan85

Whats the main reasons (for a newbie in this topic like me) for baking maps (displacement 16 and 32 bit, normal maps...) in Xnormal instead of Zbrush (4R6 for example). Currently im doing it in zbrush but i have heart that its better to do in xnormal, why that exactly? More compatibility of the resulting maps (in which appliacations)?

thank you for tips

cryrid

From the top of my head, Xnormal lets you:
• Use completely different meshes for the lowpoly and highpoly (good for when the highpoly contains multiple meshes, floating geometry, etc)
• Specify the tangent basis of the normal map
• Have control over a mesh's vertex normals
• Bake more map types
• Preview maps as they bake, and instantly saves them out instead of making you take a few steps to do so

GhosTDoG

Depends on your target engine or target tool.
Xnormal uses the "MikkT Tangent basis" (you also can use your own tb plug-in), which gives proper results in most common game engines, while bakes from zbrush and mudbox often cause lighting and seam issues.

It depends on which "tangent basis" your baker and target engine uses.