unwrapping question

7oli

hi everyone! first sorry for my english!
i started to model a thompson m1 smg, to learn some current-gen game modelling and texturing.
the hi poly and low poly is done and approximately the 90% of the unwrapping is finished.
i have one little question on how to unwrap this circular piece of the gun for the most economical uv layout.
i have some piece like this and i don't want to unwrap those as a long stripe.

here it is:


thanks!

MoP

I'd leave this attached to the main piece shown in the screenshot. Just relax it inwards, it'll have a tiny bit of distortion but no seam, should look fine.

7oli

Thanks Mop!
should i set the inner stripe in the same smoothing group like the main piece ?
for normal map baking purposes.

Mark Dygert

I agree with MoP better to have a little distortion than have another seam.

"should i set the inner stripe in the same smoothing group like the main piece ? "
It probably will shade horribly if you don't, if for some reason it doesn't work out, you can re-smooth and bake again. It's good to have all your ducks in a row before crossing the street but honestly a little trial and error never hurt, its how most of us learn what works best for us on any given project.

Bal

What I do for this kind of situation is keep it all in the same smooth group, but realign the vertex normals on the exterior faces, makes it look cleaner without a normal map, makes the normal map cleaner if you bake one (less gradients = less artifacts if you're later compressing to some game format like DXT1 or DXT5NM).
I use this script : http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1199523#post1199523
(yeah I know, I'm pimping this one alot, but I love it).

7oli

thanks for your suggestion! sadly that script isn't working for me. i have 3ds max 2011 x64 and when running the script nothing happens.

7oli

ok, i've got another unwrapping problem with this piece.



All the layouts i tried are generating bad smoothing. the best unwrap from me is a planar map from the front, and another planar from the side. (because it's in a different smoothing group).but it's genearting a long stripe i don't like it. one smoothing group for the enrire object causing terrible smoothing too. thank you all of your help!