Guys, im noob here and need help. Normal maps are used to transfer the high poly information to the low poly mesh, right? Like scars on a character skin, his own skin, those little details... But say, i have a 3d car model. And the car haves a super smooth surface. Almost like a mirror. So my question is: will normal map affect in something when applied in the super smoothed car surface?
I mean theres no heigh in something so thin and smoothed....
not really unless you have really good uv maps and is skilled at texturing
cars are supposed to be geometry heavy
>>532653
Normal maps contain no height information.
Each pixel is a coded vector that is applied to the original surface's vector to make it seem that pixel is pointing another direction.
Normal maps for something as smooth as a car's hull are tricky. If you render them in 8bit, artifacts might show up because the colorspace of your normal map isn't big enough to provide full accuracy for very "nuanced" vectors. A 16bit map might work, but it's heavier in terms of performance and memory usage. This is also the reason why cars in non-racing games look so shit most of the time.
Most of the time it's better to make the hull more highpoly without baking normal maps at all.
>>532653
What is the purpose of the said model? Decision is dependent on that.
>>532653
Using it for Decals would make sense if the camera isn't very close. Something like bullet-holes, small bumps, scratches, mudd.