when to sculpt details vs paint them (substance)

Fuiosg

I recently bought substance painter and now I'm questioning when I should be sculpting/modeling details like zippers, buttons, screws, cavities etc. and when I should just be painting them.

I ask because there seems to be trade offs: sculpting for instance gives me very nice AO bakes and also seemingly more  dimension, whereas substance painter gives fairly basic AO (given it's calculated from textures) and sometimes a flatter appearance, but the resolution is better-- since sculpting with displacement requires a ton of polys.

Basically, should I be using SP all the time for small details, or will it benefit me to model them out when time permits?

musashidan

This is entirely something that you have to decide yourself.  It's often a trade-off and per-asset based. There are pros and cons to both. But don't forget that you can paint your details in SP, export the new NM, and when you reimport it it will pick up the new details.

Steppenwolf

Good rule of thumb is to sculpt/model everything that is important for the silhouette.

Fuiosg

Should clarify I meant just for baking, everything would still come out as textures.

musashidan

Yes, so as I said, it's entirely up to you. Whether baked from high, stamped in texture, or baked from floaters, the results are all practically the same so it's a matter of personal workflow. Use whichever method suits you best.