Baking/Smoothing Groups Question

Kanni3d

This sort of thing has been bugging me for months now.
My current unwrap/bake workflow is to apply smoothing groups after done retopologizing/low-res model, unwrap by selecting smoothing group faces and planar map/quick peel them, then bake.
The results work fine (as seen in the images), but I'm aware that this yields more shells, which means more vertex count in engine.

So now I've seen many people model, and then when they unwrap - they unwrap freely and place seams where they would be hidden - then use TexTools to assign those shells their own SG's...

This is ideal - but i feel it isn't accurate or correct and gives crap baking results. I find a problem with this because from what I see, if you unwrap a sharp angled mesh out into one shell - and now textools has given that thing one smoothing group (as seen in the image), wouldn't that look wrong smoothing wise, rather than six seperate shells?

Hope i've explained this clear enough, and apologies for the noob question.

Thanks!

Bartalon

Pre-defining smoothing groups is fine, but you're basically just adding a step that you are going to re-visit anyway.  If you are taking the time to select a range of polygons that you want to define as a SG (and therefore a UV shell later), just cut out the middle man and project/unfold those polygons right away instead.  When you use Textools to auto-split your UVs, they will all just work out.

As for sharp angles being grouped as one UV island, it's best to split them at 90 degree corners or bevel those edges.  Beveling can't be done efficiently in some situations but it can allow you to keep more UV islands together with little to no increase in vertex count.

Kanni3d

Bartalon said:

you're basically just adding a step that you are going to re-visit anyway.  If you are taking the time to select a range of polygons that you want to define as a SG (and therefore a UV shell later), just cut out the middle man and project/unfold those polygons right away instead.  When you use Textools to auto-split your UVs, they will all just work out.

Well, if i dont pre-define SG's, how can I select the faces and map them without them being assigned?

Bartalon

You can make your face selections with a UVW modifier active.  Then, instead of designating a smoothing group, you can project/unfold right away.  Repeat this till all your polygons have been mapped.  When you're done with your UVs you run the script that generates smoothing splits according to your texture seams.  You'll get the same result as manually defining smoothing groups except you didn't have to spend the time doing it.

Kanni3d

Bartalon said:

You can make your face selections with a UVW modifier active.  Then, instead of designating a smoothing group, you can project/unfold right away.  Repeat this till all your polygons have been mapped.  When you're done with your UVs you run the script that generates smoothing splits according to your texture seams.  You'll get the same result as manually defining smoothing groups except you didn't have to spend the time doing it.

I think we're mixed up here.

I have my smoothing groups assigned, THEN I uvw modifier, select faces by sg, and project/unfold and done... I don't assign a smoothing group while unwrapping, if that is what you are thinking.

Basically, I assign SG's prior, so it's easier for me to select faces, rather than manually select faces, unwrap, and TT script like you mentioned.