Why is my texture bending in the the middle of the polygon?

Stu2Prof

Hey guys I'm trying to create a low=poly stream of smoke but am noticing some odd distortion with the texture right at the centre of the polygon. I understand that having my object low=poly means that I will have kinks in the texture but am confused why this is happening in the middle of the polygon rather than at the edge. Does anyone have an explanation/solution?

ZacD

It's happening because every quad is actually being treated as a triangle. If you triangulate the mesh, you'll see the kinks line up with the edges of the diagonal edges of the triangles.

kurt_hectic

I think you can still project something on that mesh. It will look really bad on texture but OK in game/ on the model.

JustMeSR

Just like ZacD mentioned, it's caused by triangulation.

Try to triangulate your mesh before UVing.

Obscura

A best way to reduce this, is to add a connect. Because you would have shorter triangles, it would be less visible. As you can see its less visible where you have quads with evenly sized sides. Or projecting it from a highpoly mesh can completely solve it. Or , you can keep in mind the triangulation when texturing, and painting it also wavy.

clinington

Obscura is correct, connecting the edges will reduce the problem and give a much better result. It's a quick and easy fix.

Stu2Prof

Hey guys thanks for the advice I did a test using the split polygon tool and the smooth tool which resolved the problem for me. I'm looking to create quite a smooth sweep and amnt worried about polycount so smooth seems to have created the best result.