A free, industry-standard normal map baker that generates high-quality normal, curvature, and AO maps from high-poly to low-poly meshes.
Even though development paused in 2019, XNormal remains the gold standard for normal map baking among indie devs. It produces sharper, more accurate maps than most commercial tools, with exceptional control over projection methods, filtering, and tangent space. Supports OBJ, FBX, and 3DS with batch rendering and multiple output channels. Its UI is dated, but its output quality is unmatched—especially for low-poly game assets. Still actively used in pipelines for Blender, Maya, and Unity. A must-have for anyone serious about texture quality without paying for Substance 3D.
Pricing Type
Last checked: February 21, 2026
Categories
Platforms
Website
xnormal.net