Do low poly game assets that are using normal maps have to use smooth shading as well ?
node
Just wondering, because as far as I saw when baking normal map, marked sharp edges are evil, they will just mess things up. So I guess, if I don't want to put on my mesh seams everywhere where there is a sharp edge, making uv-islands unreasonably small, it's better to just apply geometry data on low poly and clear every sharp edge. Normal map copies smooth shading from high poly mesh anyway. But I'm not sure if I didn't got wrong conclusion.
Replies
https://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts/p1
The lowpoly and highpoly normals work in conjunction in a baked normalmap and on the lowpoly mesh. The uv cuts and hard edges also work together.