[SOLVED] [REQUEST/QUESTION] I need help with normal map generation.

[sercher.max]

 Hi! At the moment I'm exploring modding by creating mods that provide compatibility between my favorite mods or expand their functionality. Right now I'm working on a mod that creates an egghead effect for SGO4 depending on the stones inside the belly. Many thanks to the author of the original mod for his amazing work that inspired me to do this:

 

 

 Initially, I wanted to use these resources and make the data from SGO4 compatible with them. I have succeeded. But in the process I came up with a new idea, for the realization of which I only had to make new normal maps. 
 

 What is the idea? The original mod with normal maps and ovipositor sliders has 6 sliders that simultaneously apply the effect of several eggs at a time (not counting Ovipositor_1). I came up with the idea to rework the sliders and make them in a quantity of 12 (that's how many stones can be in the player's stomach at most at a time in SGO4). Each slider is tied to one stone and is responsible for 1 swelling on the stomach. That is, the bigger the stone has grown - the more a particular slider changes. But there is a problem: for different number of stones in the abdomen, you need a new map of normals (12 pieces). The original maps won't work, because they draw a different arrangement of balls on the belly and in a different number. 
 I will say more - I was able to achieve the desired effect I was able to manually add 12 sliders and link them to the stones (everything works, but it looks bad without the normal maps). I was also able to provide replacement normal maps in-game by making 12 variants using the pregnancy normal maps from this mod:
 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/68977?tab=files

 

 Essentially all that's left to do is add the necessary normal maps, but I ran into a number of problems in trying to create them. Initially, I found some old tutorial that didn't work out for me. Afterwards, I tried to manually apply the normals using a graphics application with layer support. It worked not even passable. (I am far from an artist).

 
 That's why I'm asking for help in this post. If you can help in any way, I'm asking for it. Any kind of help is fine with me: from links to relevant manuals and help with the work, to complete generation of normal maps from your side (I can send you the body and slider file (I hope I've understood correctly which specific files are responsible for them)).

 Consider that the work is almost done: it remains to refactor the code, make the mod react to body changes from SGO4 as adequately as possible, maybe make MSM menus and make missing normal maps.
  If the problem with the normal maps is not solved, I will probably release a mod that just provide support for the above-mentioned existing resources. 

 

 In brief, what I need:
 12 normal maps showing the swellings on the abdomen according to the maximum value of my created sliders. 1 normal map showing 1 egg, 2 normal maps showing 1 and 2 eggs, etc.

Edited May 22, 2024 by sercher.max

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From our DM.

 

The first and best thing I can tell you in that Xnormal is your friend. That's what I used to make the normal maps, since Blender was being finicky.

 

Pretty sure I loosely followed this guide until I could make something work https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Creating_normal_maps_for_your_own_Skyrim_character_mods

 

When generating the normal maps for the body, make sure the placement of colors matches with your standard female body normal map in that they should represent light coming from various angles. Green for example represents light coming from above (I believe) so you should see green or something close to it on the top parts of the bulges in the normal map.

 

To get your "high" and "low" poly meshes to generate normals in xnormal. All I did was export the same mesh from outfit studio twice and apply one to high poly and the other to low poly for generation. Seems to have worked ok for me but your results may vary. For exporting, just set the sliders where you'd like them and use set base shape in outfit studio. The I would delete the vagina and anus meshes so they don't generate their own normal maps on top of the body one. Finally export the mesh as an obj.