LP optimization help request

Jacecr

I'm working on a highpoly gun
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90669
that i need to make a lp for and later bake.There's a few areas I'm unsure of in terms of whether I should keep the polys in my low poly model or lay them out differently.I attached screenshots.More images of the model can be seen via the link.I didn't know where to post this but I don't know where else to go for help.

The first image shows a lp piece.The polys seem to be messing up the texture but if i loop my edges I'd be creating more polys.
The other two images show hp and lp versions of the same piece.
I want to , of course, have minimal polys but a nice normal and ao map out of this.
If someone can do a mark up of my screenshots, that would at least help me understand how much I can delete or how to better lay out me edges.

PolyHertz

All you need is the silhouette to be maintained the rest will be taken care of by normal maps. Something like this:

Jacecr

I did as suggested and I figured I'd post my new issue.Hope someone can get back to me.
Should I add more edge loops?It doesn't look like the normal map is catching the silhouette as I expected it would.

PolyHertz

I think you should read up on how normal maps work: http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?highlight=%28\bCategoryTexturing\b%29

That should explain just about everything you need to know.

Ace-Angel

The gist of it is: Normal maps = non silhouette details.

Jacecr

Thanks for responding.I'll check out the link.I think I looked at it before and had a little trouble understanding it entirely.I just noticed that when I apply my normal map you can see the negative space between the high and the low.I figured that means that I didn't capture the silhouette well enough in the low poly.So, if I add more edges that would increase the poly count.So what would an industry professional do in this case?I just wanted to know if I should or shouldn't add edges.Should i ignore what's going on?I want to learn to do things correctly rather than guessing at it or developing bad habits,I've done enough of that already.

sprunghunt

Jacecr wrote: »

I did as suggested and I figured I'd post my new issue.Hope someone can get back to me.
Should I add more edge loops?It doesn't look like the normal map is catching the silhouette as I expected it would.

where you have the series of small ridges on the highpoly I would put a slope on the lowpoly. So that you're matching the average slope of the highpoly geometry.

At the moment you've just got a 90 degree angle there.

Jacecr

@sprunghunt- thanks for the feedback.I actually had a sloped low poly prior to making the edge a 90 degree angle.The only difference was less negative space.It was still pretty obvious that I was trying to project the hp with small ridges on to a single bevel.I was just hoping for a something more accurate without adding more edges or polys.I guess it's not really possible then and this is as good as it's going to get.