Skye

On second thought, If you select no baking option, there is no reason for normals to be baked even with smoothing groups on. So you should try to go with bake normals and it will work. I think its by design.

Did you calculate curvature map first?

You can weld points by hitting symmetry copy in retopo layer list. You can move one side a bit more so it is a bit overlapping and hit symmetry copy and it will snap

More renders

Cooking something new

final

Created some additional rocks using tiled sculpting. I used blob tool set to plane with free lasso. Then converted to surface mode and used Flatten clay with jitter on position and hard brush to chisel edges. Since displacement is BW I used same exr texture as opacity mask to mask out plane so only rocks are visible. Works well.

Some more progress shots. Model is ready, playing with lights and environment

Yes, I am using latest official build

I had performance issues when texturing this whole thing, I deleted all sculpting layers to make 3b file smaller, got around 600Mbps and around 300k polys but curvature took forever to calculate, same as AO, so I decided to break model to smaller parts and assemble it in Unity. Here is texutred cabin with alpha for glass and test render in Octane for Unity, checking volumetrics option

I encountered some issue in painting room with clipping mask layer option with folders. After saving file and reopening, clipping mask of folders is reset to none, after selecting clip mask layer back, changes are not reflected on layers in it, and its not working unless I delete that folder and create a new one.

Baking finished, time to texture

are you in isometric view?

You can use that merged voxel layer to create retopo, then delete it and use retopo object to bake multiple objects, all child layers will have separate paint layer that you can mask after that so you dont need to retopo every object.

Thank you for comment, I am doing now detailing and finished design issues. Cleaning retopo list.

Did some design changes and used autopo to slowly prepar mesh for baking

You need to import cube into retopo room only and then click Retopo -> Microvertex (no baking), your cube will be in paint room, select 2048 for HD. You need to make black and white version of that image because that image has no height information, then import BW version into stencil and select stencil and on normal map channel only, paint on that cube then Export - high poly mesh. But you still need to make proper black and white image from that.

Another option on how to apply this stencil is to take your object that you want to use this stencil on in the Retopo room and go with Retopo -> Microvertex (no baking), select stencil and on normal map channel only, you can paint and then Export - high poly mesh. But you still need to make proper black and white image from that. Maybe you can try something like this first and then bring it into 3Dcoat.

You need to convert it to black and white image and then you can use it as a stencil and sculpt over it. But in this particular image, you will then need to make some level adjustment and overpaint in photoshop to match desired profile, because if those 3 blocks at the top are supposed to be stairs, it doesn't really make sense to see those shadow parts.

test render

Work in progress for Hum3D challenge, still not 100% about direction but will keep on.

Yes, Octane is free but UI might be little bit intimidating but there are tutorials on Octane youtube how to use it in Unity. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/integration/octanerender-for-unity-installer-scene-105646

You can use Octane in Unity, both are free, you just need to register.

Did you tried this: