question about UV-layout for normal map generation

azryth

I'm having some issues with the normal maps Mudbox is giving me. I'm getting all kinds of seam problems and little blocks that are missing. Its not the search depth i don't think, since I've used the automatic recommendation in Mudbox, as well as increasing it further just to be sure. I've laid out my UV's with box-like borders and tried to keep the uv-shells as vertical/horizontal as possible. Also, the only overlapping uv's are the inner-roots at the bottom where you wont be able to see the seams. I've attached images of my uv layout, and used a simple color texture to show the seams. Does my UV layout look like they are causing the problems? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks!

MoP

Your UV layout looks ok... have you tried exporting the highpoly into Maya (bounding box shading mode if it's really high detail, otherwise Maya will probably crash!), then using Transfer Maps to bake normals? I think that might get better results.
Never tried Mudbox for baking normals myself, but I don't see a lot of other people doing it, maybe there's a reason for that?

Farfarer

You might try xNormal, too. I find it does really well with high poly stuff that would otherwise cripple full 3D apps.

You may also find that welding your UVs together so that the seams are hidden from view can keep things looking better even though you get a bit of stretching as a result. Maybe try changing the seams of the roots to go around the sides and weld the outward facing parts to the main stem, that should help hide the worst of the seams and keep the seams on the side out of the main view. And weld the top ones on as they're only the front halfs anyway.