Why are my SD normal maps really blurry compared to my Blender normal maps?

[oeales]

the first image is my high poly model.

the second is my SD6 normal map.

the third is my Blender normal map.




I cant understand how Blender produces a nice normal map which looks like its nice and linear, while the SD6 map looks like its created from a single focus point and the nuts in the corner are distorted cause of a 'shadow' effect?

some people elsewhere say "use a cage" 1) I got no idea what a cage should look like, if Blender doesnt need a cage why does SD6 need a cage? is there a quick fix? what am I doing wrong?

merci.

[Cyrille Damez]

This is not blur, it is skewing. You can find some explanations in these threads :
http://polycount.com/discussion/81154/understanding-averaged-normals-and-ray-projection-who-put-waviness-in-my-normal-map
http://polycount.com/discussion/147227/skew-you-buddy-making-sense-of-skewed-normal-map-details

One possible way to quickly get rid of skewing is by unchecking the "Average Normals" option in the baker settings. It is not recommended for reasons explained in the threads above, but that might be the default setting for Blender bakers.

A better way is to use the skew map feature introduced in SD 2017.1 (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymRZOvzUKtE around 13:00)