Mid Poly Bevel Technique

Valvoa

Hello all, I've been trying to wrap my head around this technique and simply cannot find an answer for the issue I'm encountering. Do you unwrap the 1 segmented bevel on your mid poly mesh?

I'll use this lid mesh as an example of my problem. I unwrapped this small mesh, no bevel has been applied but I have it live in the stack. 




Smoothing looks good, weighted normals all correct. Now's here's what I can't wrap my head around. Many have told me to export the bevel live in the stack and NOT to unwrap it. But here's the thing, when exporting it's going to apply the bevels anyway and add geo to the UV's. When this happens many corners experience errors, some overlap with the mesh, some become detached and so on. Here are a couple of images showing modifiers applied in Blender vs exporting them live and viewing the UV's in Marmoset.  





Now do these small errors matter in the UV's when texturing? I don't really no, maybe it's not an issue. I'm just trying to understand how this mid-poly technique works and what I should be doing. Am I missing something here? I greatly appreciate any feedback! Thank you!

Kanni3d

do these small errors matter in the UV's when texturing?

Yes.

Just unwrap post-bevels. Chamfering/beveling can destroy your previously made UVs as demonstrated.

Either you could simply move and wrangle those verts in place and weld them, or just unwrap when you're doing beveling everything.

Valvoa

@Kanni3d Wrangling those verts and welding them seems counter productive right? Probably best to just unwrap with the 1 segmented bevel like you said.

Let's say I have a low poly 1 segmented chamfer box with a weighted normal, I also have a high poly 3 segmented chamfered box with weighted normal that may have other details such as bolts and such. I know everywhere there's a hard edge (90 degrees) I should have a UV seam on my low poly, but what about when that low poly box is chamfered with face weighted normals? Where should the seems go and better yet how do I handle the corners? Most examples I've found use cylinders and it splits the UV's even on a 45 degree. 

Kanni3d

Unwrapping with the 1 segmented bevel from scratch could be a little tricky since after relaxing the shells they'll pillow out and not be straight - whereas your screenshot, they're quite nice and straight (from being unwrapped pre-bevels), and just need to move some verts in place+ weld. Up to you, whichever is faster/easier.

but what about when that low poly box is chamfered with face weighted normals? Where should the seems go and better yet how do I handle the corners? Most examples I've found use cylinders and it splits the UV's even on a 45 degree. 

It'll have one smoothing group, therefore the hard edge rule is gone, and now seam placement is totally up to you. Could be anywhere, but now ideally you'd want to place them in the more concave/hidden and tucked away areas as possible. Depending on the shape of the geometry, some UV shells can be unwrapped cleverly and neatly, and not require as many seams as you'd think.

Valvoa

@Kanni3d Thank you, the hard edge rule is gone because I'm not baking smooth edges as I already have them . Normal maps would just be used for additional detail on flat surfaces if needed I suppose. So basically I can just unwrap as normal, only have to worry about visible seams. 

I went through this post, was very helpful
https://polycount.com/discussion/154664/a-short-explanation-about-custom-vertex-normals-tutorial/p1

It didn't have a ton of unwrapping discussion other than it was slightly more tedious as you have to deal with the a bevel/chamfer. Does any artist ever add a 2 segment bevel and can split in the middle? Probably overkill and I'm not sure if that would even unwrap correctly.

 Any idea if this method is preferred over the traditional baking of smooth edges? Maybe depends on the application I suppose...Thanks for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it. 

Kanni3d

So basically I can just unwrap as normal, only have to worry about visible seams.

Precisely

Does any artist ever add a 2 segment bevel and can split in the middle? Probably overkill and I'm not sure if that would even unwrap correctly.

It'd unwrap correctly, why wouldn't it? 2 segment bevel and splitting down the middle is valid, but usually only really fat/large shapes will warrant segmenting twice - else it'd be a waste of geometry on the smaller edges/details.

Any idea if this method is preferred over the traditional baking of smooth edges? Maybe depends on the application I suppose...Thanks for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it.

Depends on the application and is typically used on filler props/environmental assets. It's a situational technique. High detailed/hero props likely wouldn't use this method entirely.

Valvoa

@Kanni3d Thanks for the response. After applying the bevel on a couple meshes and re-unwrapping I'm starting to re-think my workflow.  Selecting hard-edges and applying seems is relatively fast and straight forward in comparison, downside is I have quite a few 90 degree hard angles.

From a distance it shouldn't matter too much, maybe I should go with a more traditional bake high poly smoothed bevels on to a low poly hard edge mesh.