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3 Dimensional Chat / Tris or Quads for poly-by-poly modelling for low-poly models?

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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 18:58
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Hi all! I'd like some expert opinions here.

I've been watching BlenderCookie tutorials which utilize quads for almost everything since it has a good topological overview and makes things simpler, but then again that's mainly for high-poly rendered images where the model will be subdivided.

So... is it a good idea to use tris for modelling for games?
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 19:40
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It depends what your goals are.

At game level, you may wish to produce something streamline that runs on low end machines; or you may want to produce something fast performing and high quality at the same time, with user options.

At object level, cubed surfaces such as walls, floors and doors should be made out of quads to aid texturing and UV mapping. As for organic shapes such as trees and rocks, the use of quads are not essential.

When modelling in Blender, I never use triangle based meshes; unless I am modelling a pyramid or something. 99% of my models use quads so that later on, if I need to reuse them for a task that requires sub-surface modeling, I can do so. UV mapping on a per triangle basis is a pain aswell.


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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 19:46
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Thanks for the input.

Right now I'm working on a low poly character model which is utilizing a mixture of both quads and tris (I'm starting work from the head which was just a modified IcoSphere).
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 19:57
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Cool; with non cube based objects it is fine for a low poly character. I do not think you will run into any problems.


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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 20:15
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Yeah, I'm actually using Blender, but the only issue I'm running into now is sometimes verts don't always connect together at first, but I just merge and voila! It's good.

And what's funny is I notice the more and more I near completion of the head, there aren't any quads in the head.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 21:38
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Yeah, I find it easier to shape things using quads. Your next step is getting the character UV unwrapped.


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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 10th Oct 2011 22:08
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Yeah... Since you're familiar with Blender, I was wondering... I've noticed every time I try to UV Unwrap from Projection it's grayed out. What are the prerequisites for it to work?
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Ortu
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Posted: 11th Oct 2011 02:17
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do you have the faces selected? it'll only project the selection so you need to be in edit mode with at least 1 face selected


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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 11th Oct 2011 03:23
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Yeah, the faces were selected when I checked since I was going to try another UV unwrap.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 11th Oct 2011 03:27
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As Ortu pointed out, you project unwrap what you select in edit mode.

There is also the 'Keep in sync' button next to the pivot button, in the UV editor which is handy for seeing the current state of all UV coordinates even if not selected.

With character skinning, how you unwrap it is down to how you want to paint the texture. I use the sphere projection on the head, and project from view on the rest of the body; facing the view on each side, treating the front and back seperately, but this is just my preference.

Check out the UV snapping and aligning functions to make life easy when tidying things up.


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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 11th Oct 2011 03:29
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Thanks!
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Da_Rhyno
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Posted: 11th Oct 2011 22:07 Edited at: 11th Oct 2011 22:10
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Hey guys, I got a screenie of the issue where it doesn't have "Project from view". Note I tried it in both orthographic and perspective so neither work. If you all notice anything, please let me know.

EDIT: I figured out it's a glitch in Blender, I can hit the U key and it comes up fine.

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Ortu
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Posted: 12th Oct 2011 02:18
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ah cool, solves that then. 2.5 is still barely out of beta so it's not surprising. i still mostly work in 2.49


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