@tatertots In general: it's best practice to maintain the concentricity and consistent spacing of the edge segments that make up the walls of cylindrical shapes. Moving the edge segments too far out of position will cause the subdivision smoothing to either pinch or pull the mesh around the shape intersection and this can…
@Laon A few posts up, there's a couple of relevant examples that cover how to use segment matching to connect a cylinder to a curved surface and how to route the topology around the base of a cylinder that connects to an angled surface. The basic principles of these fundamental modeling strategies can be combined to…
@PolyDoge Looks like there should be more than enough geometry in the existing model to get a passable result. The key is to use the existing geometry as support by offsetting the edges in the intersecting shapes so there's room for the subdivision smoothing to average things out. It's also important to preserve the…
@guitarguy00 It really depends on the size of the object and whether or not it will be seen up close by the player. Fastener threads usually aren't something that players are looking at up close. Adding this kind of detail in Substance painter is probably the fastest and easiest route. Using floaters probably makes sense…
@IronLover64 You have the basic idea but the difference is that Wirrexx's cage mesh has support loops. Here's a breakdown of what happens to the shape when subdivision smoothing is applied: The basic shapes look fine on their own but when subdivision is applied the smoothing effect deforms the mesh and the shape melts…