Best topology for ue4

Lorenzo444

Hi everyone, maybe it's the hundredth post about topology , but i want to make sure that what i am doing is right .
So i started to make some assets for my project for ue4  like a wooden door for a house . I want to know if the approach of the second image is right or is completly wrong ? If it  is wrong , please tell me what is the better way to do retopogize assets for ue4 . Tris or quad? zremesh , decimation or by hand ?
I understood that there are not problems for tris in UE4 because it will convert the meshes when you import it ( it  will be  a problem if it is an animation ).
Thank you

jStins

There's nothing inherently wrong with your mesh that would prevent it from working in UE4. However, it is probably denser than it needs to be. You only need geometry where the silhouette has a noticeable change (or in some cases to match a contour that's to be baked to a normal map). This is where context matters. How close will the camera get to the object? Ideally you want more geometry if the camera gets close to the object / silhouette. You should also be triangulating the mesh as a final step before you bake. This eliminates discrepancies in the low poly you use to bake and the low poly that goes into the game engine. 

Lorenzo444

jStins said:

There's nothing inherently wrong with your mesh that would prevent it from working in UE4. However, it is probably denser than it needs to be. You only need geometry where the silhouette has a noticeable change (or in some cases to match a contour that's to be baked to a normal map). This is where context matters. How close will the camera get to the object? Ideally you want more geometry if the camera gets close to the object / silhouette. You should also be triangulating the mesh as a final step before you bake. This eliminates discrepancies in the low poly you use to bake and the low poly that goes into the game engine. 

Thank you so much for your reply

cupsster

Another thing to notice is if you plan to use vertex colors for material blending you need to take this into account. As an general rule you always model for good silhouette tho! 

vivek_tomar

My approach for the meshes especially the type you have posted , is to get it Decimated inside Zbrush to my targeted polycount  and than cleaning the mesh up  and optimizing as much as possible. Decimation give a much better topology for organic silhouette. again different approaches are required for different type of meshes and for different requirements, as stated above about the vertex colors(there you will need proper spaced vertex along the surface).

you can check my page on artstation, i have put toolbag viewer on most of them , you will get the idea about the topology.
https://www.artstation.com/akiba47