normal map baking

Hi,

I’ve baked a normal map in blender using high poly and low poly meshes. Both meshes are symmetrical on the x axis. The normal map is OK, except that it is not symmetrical. I could solve the problem by mirroring one side of the mesh in gimp, yet I wonder why does blender bake the other side differently. Any idea what I did wrong?

Here is a photo showing meshes, bake settings and baked normal map.


Anyone? Pls.

Since both sides are layed differently in your UV map, the result normal map should also be different. Mirroring in gimp is therefor unadvisable.

Normal maps (in tangent space) depend on how each triangle is oriented in the UVmap.

Another thing to be considered, specially with normal maps, is to have the seams in edges with low visibility. This will help to avoid discontinuities on the normals information.

cut your model into half , use mirror then baking the model.
also take a look http://www.crazybump.com