Bevel or Soften Edge Normals?

mobkon

Hi guys -

Really simple question..but I'm just starting to learn all this stuff. One thing I'm struggling with is knowing when to bevel an edge and when to soften the normals? To keep it simple, lets say I'm making an old wooden box that has more rounded edges due to wear over the years...should I be beveling these edges which adds more geometry, or should I be softening the normals? Whats the general rule here?

Farfarer

I tend to go by the sharpness of the edge. If it's a pretty sharp edge (and generally only if the bake is rendering strange) then I'll bevel it, otherwise I just leave it soft.

There aren't hard-and-fast rules about this sort of thing.

snoop

I usually don't bevel, but some game engines do not support smoothing groups so technically beveling is the safer option. Both wind up having the same amount of verts so it doesn't really matter, it's kind of your choice, but take what I said above into consideration.