Separating mesh for game assets to avoid loopcuts propagation along the whole model?

rtos

So I'm modeling a gun and I DON'T want to bake high poly to low poly, I just want an efficient and low poly model full quads, and NO subsurf will be used.

In that case is it ok to separate parts of my mesh or is it counter-productive performance-wise once in a game engine?

Obviously once imported in an engine it would be just one object but the faces wouldn't be connected, so you'd have overlapping vertices in some spots. It shouldn't be a problem for shading so I'm wondering if that's a good practice? If not what should I do in this practical exemple where I have a cylinder that was boolean'd onto a rectangle, leaving me with several cuts on this face? I don't want all those edges running along the canon for nothing, making my modeling more annoying and performance worst. How do the pro do it?

poopipe

Usually the pros will use normal maps 

Just remove any geometry  that doesn't need to be there

rtos

poopipe said:

Usually the pros will use normal maps 

Just remove any geometry  that doesn't need to be there

I'm going to handpaint the model, I don't need normal map, just a diffuse texture handpainted will do. And those cuts need to be there to support the curve at the top. I just want to know if it's ok to separate this face from the rest so I can have this in my portfolio and not look like a foul haha.

Eric Chadwick

Merge all the bottom vertices into the corner vertex. Don't need those extra bottom verts, waste. Same with the side vertex near the top, weld it to the top corner instead.