if you already have uv cuts, you can use hard edges for free, but you dont have to if you add hard edges because you have too much lowpoly shading going on with sharp angles, you have to add uv cuts. yes hard egdes will add to the render vertexcount in that case
This is incorrect, there is no requirement for uv seam edges to be hard, they can be, and it's free (in terms of vert cost), but there is no requirement to do so. On the other hand, you do need a UV split (and padding between islands) anywhere you have a hard edge, otherwise you'll get artifacts in the bake.
All true.. What you decide to do is determined by expected view distance. If you're close enough to see that seam, you're close enough to notice the silhouette issues of not having a bevel. You need to build your model so it looks good at that view distance and ensure that you have enough texel density to support it. Also…
These micro bevels can cause just as many problems. Firstly, if you're adding bevels and not using hard edges, generally speaking the normal map has to do more, not less work. Beveling only really helps in the case where you have a sparse mesh and aren't using hard edges. But hard edges are free at UV borders anyway.…
Nowadays current hardware eats polygons for breakfast, so I'd say you could bevel those edges instead to have easier time with baking normal maps (and other maps too). I took a look at your low poly and its polygon count is 184 triangles, so nothing to worry about. Like I tested here by beveling some key edges, the…
@Neox okay! After really think about "hard edges for free", I get it now. Tq for the explanation! @EarthQuake Okay! As long as its professionally done! Now i got no more doubts! Tq! TQ all for the explanations!
Woaahhh! So much discussions! @FourtyNights I really would love to add more bevels to it but I'm restricted at a certain polycount. This is just a part of the whole model. xDIssit a must for hard edging UV border? I kinda did some tests on them. It just doesn't have as much average baked into the normal map. (I might be…
Hi. This is my very first post in polycount forum. (First time ever posting in forum asking for help please be kind on me)I'm some sort new to lowpoly hardsurface baking. I've been trying to solve this issue for the past few months. I read and learn from so many posts and threads, slowly learning and improving. But i hit a…