ok i sat down with the 2.57 version and with 2.56 and have one common result smart unwrap is trash
after using standard unwrap versus smart unwrap 1 thing is clear smart unwrap unwraps in a manner best fitting the mesh data and not the mesh itsself
use the old regular unwrap and apply the texts and try again because the smart-unwrap actualy flips certian normals and confuses the render
i unwrapped 16 meshes in both manners and the results were the same so im sure its the method