I'm not a beginner, but this is the most suitable section.
This has bothered me for a while with heads, and now that I'm looking to get into joints its going to be a whole lot troublesome.
This:


Flat:


Does anyone know a way to get around that?

This may help you...

Nope. Thanks for the attempt, but simple mapping isn't my issue. I believe it's a matter of geometry warping the texture.

it doesn't show up without shaders

for now, there is no fix
but what do you expect? you're mapping a 2 dimensional square on a 3 dimensional sphere

Oh, that's a shame. Thanks for the info boStaff.