High poly version or not high poly version

erwilly

Helloo!!

I'm doing a proyect in my secret laboratory and I want to know you opinion about create or not a high version of low polys weapons?

Can you achieve the same or very silimar result making the normal maps with photoshop, Crazy bump or similar programs?

or Is it worth making the High poly version(more time and work)?

Thanks.

Farfarer

Without seeing what you're doing it's a bit hard to say for sure.

Making it in high poly nearly always gives a better result. If it's curvy or has rounded edges, I'd recommend making at least a sort of "base shape" in high poly so you can capture that information and then put more on top with basic height-map stuff.

erwilly

Thanks for your advice.

gsokol

Yeah. Photoshop plugins, crazybump, etc... are good for getting a little bit of detail from a texture, but to really get full use from your normal maps, you will want to do a high poly. That way, like Talon said, you can get some more information on edges and curvy pieces, and modeling details and baking will give much more depth to the normal map than if you were to try to get that from a photo.

I typically do both. I'll usually do the high poly to get all the good shape into my normals, then overlay a normal map from a texture to add a little bit more to it.