Don't use obj honestly, go with fbx as it is far more predictable and interoperable with most every program. And use it always unless using certain programs that don't support fbx (lookin at you zbrush).
ok i think i might have figured it out. hallelujah. the problem is in the highpoly mesh and something funky going on when exporting to obj. When I checked the hipoly before exporting, it seemed all is well. then in a fresh maya scene i imported it and i see that some of the face normals were reversed. however even when i…
Here is a pic of just one of the baked problem mesh. Since the normal map of this still came out yellow, with no other objects in the scene, perhaps the problem is unrelated to exploding. cage: hipoly: baked in xNormal. Just this 1 part baked, and nothing else: my xNormal settings: I've also attached this particular…