Multiple smoothing groups = more vert count in game engine?

Perfectblue

On the low poly model of an object when you go to add smoothing groups, if you use autosmooth or multiple smoothing groups everytime you see a hard edge its going to split the verts and increase your vert count in unreal or any game engine. This is what I have heard, can someone verify? Thank you.

EarthQuake

Yes, however, if you have a hard edge where you also have a uv split, there is no increase in verts, as the verts are already doubled along the uv seam.

When doing normal mapped stuff, its essential to have uv seams where you have hard edges(to avoid baking artifacts), so this works out well naturally.

So in any realistic situation, it just isn't an issue.

I plan my hard edges when i'm doing my uvs, and then just use a script to assign all uv borders as hard edged/to smoothing groups. This is really fast, and I never have to worry about setting up hard edges/smoothing groups by hand, but it requires some planing and experience to know where to best place your seams.

In addition to that, I dont tweak smoothing groups, instead I just tweak uvs, and re-run the script. Again this makes sense, because you'll have to redo uvs when changing up smoothing groups/uvs anyway, so best to just control it all with your uv layout.

Perfectblue

Awesome Post EQ thanks. Would you happen to know if theres a similar script floating around for max (from viewport grabs you post seems like you use modo possibly)?

EarthQuake

This is the one I use for maya: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/499159/UVShellHardEdge.mel
I believe Mop wrote it.

For max, textools has a feature for it afaik: http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/