Efficient triangulation for game engines

DigitalMechanik

Hallo,

I have question regarding triangulated meshes in game engines. Does the Topology/edge flow matter, when modeling assets that wont be deformed?

Often times it is possible to get a lower polygon count when the Quads are not simply triangulated.
Thanks in advance.

 

pixaeiro

Nope, the triangulation for objects that don't deform doesn't matter. As long as it looks as good as you need it's ok.
For example, Simplygon produces some very ugly looking meshes because they are built only to look good at a defined pixel size, and that is ok.

Steppenwolf

Thin and long triangles can cause issues with lighting so those should be avoided. Other thing to take into consideration is if you want to vertex paint your prop. In that case more evenly distributed geo works better.

DigitalMechanik

Thank you for your answers. A little off topic but couldn't you use a tool like simplygon to do the low poly version of a modeled high poly to bake the normal map on? 

Quack!

DigitalMechanik said:

Thank you for your answers. A little off topic but couldn't you use a tool like simplygon to do the low poly version of a modeled high poly to bake the normal map on? 

The algorithms that programs like that use are not suitable for LOD 0 (or 1 for that matter) for game props. The meshes they generate are very often not meant to be seen up close.

musashidan

The main things to look out for are: good silhouette, no shading errors, avoid thin/long tris(as Steppenwolf mentioned)

Also, keeping the topo UVunwrap friendly is always going to be useful.