Is there any tricks to get a low poly cone to shade correctly? (Custom normals? geometry tricks?)

ZacD · Jul 2016

So with vertex normals, when you try to shade a simple cone, you have to use a lot of geometry or a normal map. Because if you try to use just 1 vertex on top, the back side will not shade correctly. And if you use quads with a flat cylinder top, you get these hard smoothing edges from the tris. I know the simplest solution would be to use a lot of geometry, or a normal map, but I wanted to see if anyone here could come up with some other solutions that might be a bit more ideal if you want to keep it as low poly as possible.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/dz/0lqeso7yornd.png

Joost · Jul 2016

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/m5/60e9d2kwe7sp.jpg

this is the best I could do Zac

throttlekitty · Jul 2016

I couldn't do any better either, but I wonder if there's any special shader out there just for cones?

Here's a really stupid "solution" with 20 faces though! ...but it also uses transparency and a normal map.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/us/x01e7c066nlg.jpg

Antut · Jul 2016

I have this on maya with the default cone primitive:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/xr/32lmmfavawj3.png

Maybe you can try unlit shader or emissive to avoid the black shade.

Is there any tricks to get a low poly cone to shade correctly? (Custom normals? geometry tricks?)

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