You don't HAVE to add hard edges to UV splits, you do have to add UV splits at hard edges though. As in you could leave it smooth shaded and it would technically bake fine, but it's free to add hard edges at the UV splits as it won't increase the vert count on the model and will allow the normal map to render better when…
The 3.17.0 B1 is released. For the Beta 1 I'll add some Optix-accelerated ray tracing things :) Btw... anybody wanna send me a ZB3.5 Polypainted(MRGB/RGB vertex colors) model to add to the xNormal's examples, pls?
Hmmm.... Walt Disney just released their Ptex API ( http://ptex.us/overview.html )... perhaps I should add support for it in the 3.17.0... It could be useful to get a super-detailed HP-baked base texture or to add micro-detail to the highpoly model.