Do low poly game assets that are using normal maps have to use smooth shading as well ?

Creepezel · Jul 2020

Just wondering, because as far as I saw when baking normal map, marked sharp edges are evil, they will just mess things up. So I guess, if I don't want to put on my mesh seams everywhere where there is a sharp edge, making uv-islands unreasonably small, it's better to just apply geometry data on low poly and clear every sharp edge. Normal map copies smooth shading from high poly mesh anyway. But I'm not sure if I didn't got wrong conclusion.

Obscura · Jul 2020

All of these statements are wrong...And whats with the small uvs??
https://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts/p1

The lowpoly and highpoly normals work in conjunction in a baked normalmap and on the lowpoly mesh. The uv cuts and hard edges also work together.

Do low poly game assets that are using normal maps have to use smooth shading as well ?

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