If you think about it, the only time you need to cut it is if you have a 90 degree edge. Even if you combine the UVs from SG 2 and 3 and leave the UVs for 1 separate, you can still have the entire model have 1 SG except the back if there's mesh there since that is a 90 degree edge. The bake will grab more information that…
cant sg 2 and 3 be combined (sorry. not 1 and 2).. id imagine both are planar in the UVs, so why not just put them together as one in both sg and uv islands.
whoops. i made a mistake in my post too sorry. yeah combining sg 2 and 3 will do the trick. typcially i find it helps to keep everything in 1 smoothing group, though if you're bringing the model into an engine it may have issues. but 1 sg is so much easier to work with because you can make your UVs however you want. :D
1. prominent silhouette, not enough sides. 2. you could easily redesign this to save tris. 3. complete waste of tris to have these modeled. the pull tab indents could be fattened up and pulled closer together, then baked down. doing both of these would save a LOT of geo. same on the top rail cover. 4. prominent silhouette,…