Support Edges+SubD vs Bevel for baking

Jumbee · Apr 17 2025

Hey,
What are your thoughts on using bevels vs support edges+subdivision, for high poly mesh.
I find it easier to use a bevel modifier on my low poly to make the edges smoother and bake it that way. That way I can just turn off the bevel modifier and i have an instant low poly, or turn it on to have high poly.
It is easier on the hardware too, plus bevels are easier to work with too.
Also you don`t need to deal with the shading or topology related issues on the other side of your model.

Feels like a cheat especially for simple models.

I am wondering are there any downsides to this method that I am missing? Why don`t i see people use this method?

Neox · Apr 17 2025

not sure what the difference to you is. bevel is just support edges? and going from a tri bevel to a quad bevel is just an option in modifier settings and results in pretty much the same result as support loops?

doing these manually is more or less a rare edge case since quite some time now?

your way absolutely works, if the artdirection allows for it. there are just designs that don't work this way or would be rather wasteful on the lowpoly if done this way.

but it isnt unlikely that something like this happens on simple parts of complex tasks in many productions.

sacboi · Apr 18 2025

@Jumbee

"I find it easier to use a bevel modifier on my low poly to make the edges smoother and bake it that way. That way I can just turn off the bevel modifier and i have an instant low poly, or turn it on to have high poly."

Interesting baking with an active modifier stack? afaik they must be collapsed beforehand, well at least bakers I use or perhaps functionality only available to current gen proprietary engines? else I'm missing something fundamental indeed obvious....

kosh3d · Apr 19 2025

Using bevel modifier on your lowpoly is a valid workflow. The downside is mostly the limitation of the modifier. It works well on cubes and simple shapes but will usually fall apart when used on complex objects. It's just a different workflow for different purposes than traditional subd modeling. You can also use a bevel shader for baking. A lot of methods exist and offer different advantages, all depends on what you are doing and what kind of project it is.

Jumbee said:

Also you don`t need to deal with the shading or topology related issues on the other side of your model.

Also when dealing with more complex shapes, bevel modifier might result in bad shading issues that need to be resolved.

dimwalker · Apr 20 2025

I use both. Depending on how much space it has on texture you might get noticeable difference in curvature map.

Support Edges+SubD vs Bevel for baking

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