To smooth or not to smooth, that is the question...

Spur

So I've been working on a high poly, hard surface model today and I started thinking about the smooth function. First let me start off by saying I work with Maya. I've dabbled with a few other programs but I'm not really familiar with anything other than Maya, though I do know that most all have some form of mesh smooth. Back to the subject. I started thinking about when is it good to smooth a hard surface mesh and when its not needed. Sometimes I feel like I may smooth items that don't necessarily need it. What would be the difference between just putting a nice bevel on an edge and softening the normals as apposed to applying a mesh smooth to the whole object and jacking up your poly count? I know a lot depends on a case by case basis. Any thoughts or ideas?

Hmmm, I've been working in total silence today. Maybe I need some music to keep from thinking too much!

Eric Chadwick

Depends on what you're using the model for, doesn't it?

If it's going into a game, soft normals are what you want, so the vertex count isn't ballooned into a perf-killer.

If it's going into a render, or into a normalmap, then subdivision is key so you get smoother curvature. Doesn't matter that the flat bits are more tesselated than what's strictly needed.