Shading error giving me a headache

Chase

I can't eliminate this dang error Hours and hours and hours and it's still there with every thing I've tried. Cutting the holes straight in produces a shading error, but not as bad as cutting the holes into the curved part.



I tried editing the topology and it seemed to work a little bit, but I'm trying to limit the tri count.


Any suggestions? As a side note, I originally planned on using an 8 sided cylinder to trace and cut the holes but I chose 12 instead because it produced a less jaggy hole. I plan on sculpting details into the high poly so will tracing an 8 sided cylinder result in a smooth bake or should I stick with a 12 sided one? I'm thinking 12 since it'll match the high poly better. I read the whole baking normals thread so I'm thinking 12 sided is the way to go

BARDLER

What 3D program are you using? In maya if you go to normals>conform or normals>harden that would fix the issue.

However if you plan on sub dividing this it would also fix the issue. If you add support loops to the topology on the left section it would sub divide fine.

Chase

I'm using Max 2012. Is there any Normals settings I can adjust there? Sub dividing the mesh definitely works. I'm wondering if the shading problem will be worked out when I do my bake...

respawnrt

Hey dude here's a test i just did while drinking my coffee .Up are the hp and down the lp. i also split the uvs wherever you see hard edges in lp.In hindsight i think i would add a bevel on the lp circle if it's seen closer but i have no idea how you will use it, just add a bevel if it's closer or something.
*the shape it might not be exactly like yours.

Chase

That was one of the first things I tried respawn. The front needs to look like this

When doing the method you provided I can't seem to adjust the shape without messing up the holes. The closer the holes match between the lp and hp the better right?

I went back to edit the edges again and might have fixed it, though it might just be me but I still see a tiny error.

Jacky

Why dont you delete those cross edges and then draw new straight ones with those vertices? Like;



And then bevel the corner as respawn did.

Chase

I just wanted to show the two ways I tried splitting the edges