3ds Max Spherical Surface Subdivisions(splines approach)
vertex
Hello, Polycounters! I am excited to share how 3ds max surprised me, when I decided to find perfect sphere subdivision technique for our project last night. I hope it will be useful, as it is my first post here after more than 10 years of lurking around 
This is my favorite solution. Very interesting pattern that looks like crossing eyes, flower or some sacred geometric pattern. Moreover, it has smooth and even poly distribution!
1. First we need to create a spline contour of sphere without circular loop, to avoid surface modifier confusion(I had it, maybe it is exclusively for me and you can leave circles). You will have hemispherical(or spherical) spline carcass with ability to control interpolation steps, which was a first surprise!
2. Then apply surface and turbosmooth modifiers and play with steps and iterations. As it is seen, there are 3 types of subdivisions that can be achieved with this method(Polygonal, Triangular and Hexagonal) just by mixing this parameters.
3. Profit and my Best Regard to the Community!
This is my favorite solution. Very interesting pattern that looks like crossing eyes, flower or some sacred geometric pattern. Moreover, it has smooth and even poly distribution!
1. First we need to create a spline contour of sphere without circular loop, to avoid surface modifier confusion(I had it, maybe it is exclusively for me and you can leave circles). You will have hemispherical(or spherical) spline carcass with ability to control interpolation steps, which was a first surprise!
2. Then apply surface and turbosmooth modifiers and play with steps and iterations. As it is seen, there are 3 types of subdivisions that can be achieved with this method(Polygonal, Triangular and Hexagonal) just by mixing this parameters.
3. Profit and my Best Regard to the Community!
Replies
I was polishing my skillset and researching gamedev from different aspects to choose right way for my beloved games ideas to realize.
Now I am head-on and really happy^^
Glad you mentioned!
Have you tried a quad sphere?
Plus they unwrap into strips easily and pack really well.
Take a cube, add turbo smooth, and then sphereify.