Thanks for the replies guys! @icegodofhungary I really appreciate that in depth response! Your illustration makes perfect sense, it's just really annoying to get such drastically different results from different bakers, and I'm not sure how to get the optimal scenario where the top of the high res is white(the highest…
If you're using the SC technique, I would just make a series of tiling grate textures and use those on planes, rather than a trim sheet with 5 different grate textures. Make maybe 3 tiling grate textures and come up with some other ways to create variety, like the geometry around the grates, decals, and using them in…