I'm still trying to understand Normal Maps and what you can delete from a high poly mesh and what has to stay for the Normal Map to work correctly. I'd say I know how Normal Maps work, but it seems I don't know how to model for them to work. I know that might sound a little confusing so here are some images that might better display what I'm asking.
low poly lamp
high poly lamp
The lamp is simply a spline I created and lathed so there wasn't any type of extruding, beveling or chamfering if that makes any type of difference. Am I correct in saying that a Normal Map won't do anything for smoothing? So the low poly won't look like the high poly if the only difference is the amount of tris?
Is there a general rule to follow when creating the low poly if I were to add screws, bolts, cracks, indentations, and anything else? Thanks for any advice
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