yup. the new preview popup made it just so much more annoying :( Maybe there's a greasemonkey script to help with that, but I haven't searched for one yet. I usually stick to flickr nowadays for reference.
@ArtbyV - Maya still uses smoothing groups. It's just hardened vs. softened normals. After you create UVs, run this script. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52722&page=2
You say it's a conform script so the calculations will be repeated. In that case look up voxel grids - you want to be able to repeatedly get verts near a given position first and filter only those.
I've done fine with JS in Unity. Just picked it up from the example scripts that come with the standard asset packages. Between that and the reference manual and the community forums, you can get along fine.
same. looks gorgeous. also, i hope they add more to the script and fix parts of the old one. There were some sections where I felt it was trying to be poetic when it was just impossible to understand.
I gotta hand it, this really did the trick, Its way cleaner a job then I thought. I did not realize though I had to open up a file and literally tamper with the script inside. :\
Working on the high poly first, the screw might be a bit too big, I also started working with a script that helps with high-poly mesh generation so a lot of thi swas R&D
The first thing I saw upon clicking that link was SKINORDIE and I had to think twice whether I was currently being trolled by mr. Abrahamsen. Thanks Per, I'll have a look at these scripts.
Sean Ahern's GDC talk was pretty good - although it's mostly aimed at UI design for tools. Then again, even as tech artist I think too many plugins and scripts have terrible UIs.