Need some clarification regarding the Houdini Auto-UV workflow that people use for assets

Andreicus

I have seen that a lot of people that create game assets inside Houdini when they reach the UV phase they simply connect an auto uv node that results in a distorted free uv map but with hundreds and hundreds of shells but they call it a day saying that it's all ok...

For my workflow ( in Maya ) i usually unwrap manually or do an auto unwrap+sewing+unfold to minimize the number of shells and distortion but now i'm wondering if that "houdini auto uv workflow" is acceptable or not.
I understand that for procedural assets like buildings, auto uvs is a must for obvious reason but for individual assets i always knew that having over 300 uv shells in the 0-1 space is bad for texture resolution and seams.

musashidan

Manual UV work is always going to yield superior results, whether unwrapping or packing. That auto-unwrap feature is just like any other 'flatten by angle' algorithm. It only goes so far, but if it gets the job done and ships with no complaints then happy days. It's a case of picking and choosing your battles.

It's like any production asset, really: what's its purpose, is it a hero asset, will it be seen up close or from x or y angle or perspective?....etc.

Andreicus

musashidan said:

Manual UV work is always going to yield superior results, whether unwrapping or packing. That auto-unwrap feature is just like any other 'flatten by angle' algorithm. It only goes so far, but if it gets the job done and ships with no complaints then happy days. It's a case of picking and choosing your battles.

It's like any production asset, really: what's it's purpose, is it a hero asset, will it be seen up close or from x or y angle or perspective?....etc.

In the case of auto generated lightmap in UE if i have like 100 uv islands and I use baked lighting in the scene, I will get a lot of seam or "weird shadowing" on the mesh right?

Thanks for the feedback

musashidan

Well, that's a whole other story. I've seen many a good man fall into the arms of an auto-flatten tool when faced with the prospect of the dreaded lightmap UVs.....

Not necessarily, but again, whatever works. I've seen a few top notch projects that have sworn by UE4s auto-unwrap lightmaps feature, and in one case I've heard a tech director state that using the built-in unwrapper is much better than doing it manually, and not just to save time but technically.