"And depending on the size of that bsp block you may need to up that lightmap res." ^ thats a good point - and as a side note, if I'm not mistaken, that value ranges from 1- (1024 maybe?), but for some reason 1 is better in quality.
You don't necessarily need hp to lp workflow, that always depends on the requirements and target audience. But yes, you need a secondary uv channel for lightmapping, and if you would want to get good lighting bakes, they need to be decent.
Rose Lightwave - UV mapped veins ________________________________________________________________________________ Kitchen 3ds Max, some objects were UV textured ___________________________________________ __________________________________________ You can view this guy animated on my demo reel…
Check out Mirage, it's based on Aura which I have used (and is easy to use) made by Newtek, the guys who made lightwave. Mirage looks way cooler than Aura does, though. http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/2D_Animation.php
don't trust EQ anyways but still give xnormal a better try, as mop said, you'll get better results I believe you could set smoothing angle per material in lightwave, maybe it's the same for modo ?
But I feel with all the extra legroom we can get with the new generation, we won't be dealing with uber optimization like we have before. Do you know how much time we spend on Lightmaps with UE3? It's absurd.
Did you try exporting your tangents/binormals? Or using the 'import tangents' option in UDK? Also, are your smoothing groups split up according to UV shells? Last but not least, you might need a separate UV channel for lightmaps..
It has to do with the way the building is being treated. In our heads it's a building, nice and complete, but as far as the light mass is concerned it's a bunch of pieces. The result you see is due to that and various other factors dealing with lightmass settings and the lightmap resolution of the ground.
also why 5 channels that seems like over kill. channel 0 could bring tileing detail, channel 1 local detail(ao, cavity), than channel 2 for lightmaps why would you needle more than that?
Chromatic aberation is being used there. But for the color tones, that can be a bunch of stuff. RGB adjustments, tonemapping, lightmap adjustments, postdesat and a whole slew of other things. Are you wanting to make them look washed out and grey/brown like these do?