Hello, I would like to know if a high poly model is necessary when creating a realistic game asset, especially in the game industry. I ask this because high poly modeling can be very time consuming and I haven't had much success with normal map baking thus far for complex models where xnormal doesn't get small details like…
I am doing an environment test model that is a mix of high poly to low bakes and the main model just being painted in substance painter (well they will all be painted but three have support maps). From what I have seen you can come a long way by painting on normal/and the rest maps, without the hipoly. The new hipoly/mid…
Assume we're talking about viewmodels (weapons). If your game has a significant triangle margin for viewmodels then you may not need a highpoly. Smooth edges can be approximated with support loops. Some engines even support realtime subdivision, which reduces the need for baking because the game model itself can be a…
Does the size of the model affect the result of the bake? Such for small detail like in this model i did but the baked normal map would come out like this even with exploding the mesh where a lot of detail is missing and this was bake in xnormal and maya which gave me similar results this normal map has been tampered and…
Characters are the tough one. In order to remove the high poly step, you have to stop using Zbrush. We all know that Zbrush is THE essential tool in a character pipeline, so how do we remove it? How do we tell character artists that they have to go back to manually making a character using Sub-D modelling? There may be a…
I would say yes, based on the fact that it's great practice and will improve your knowledge/skillset by learning to subd model and bake efficiently. As for things you don't have enough refs for....be an artist, improvise, use your imagination. :)
No, a high poly model isn't essential. Some game artists don't use them at all. The mid-poly(chamfered/beveled low poly) workflow is a very viable option. Especially these days as game vert counts are a lot higher than they once were. Custom surface normals are another option. Also, with tools like NDO and the Substance…
I have some thoughts on this as I'm planning out pipelines for our studio at the moment and it's on my mind Firstly i believe using custom normals as a means of faking soft edges etc. Is a false economy in most asset related cases. The method is expensive, destructive and does not LOD effectively - It works well for…