Quads Vs Tris

BoilingOil

Okay I'm new to all this 3d goodness. I'm making a low poly character and I'm wondering, do I need to create the whole character with quads or is it okay to have triangles as well? I've noticed ZB3 doesn't like tris (it won't reconstruct subdiv's if you have them) and I think I read somewhere about them not being "popular".

I guess i'm asking is it good practice to stay away from triangles in a model?

Tumerboy

All geometry in a game is converted to Triangles at some point, so it doesn't matter much if you do it yourself or if you let the exporter do it for you. Obviously the advantage to doing it yourself is that you have more control over which way it divides larger polys

almighty_gir

a lot of high poly apps, like mudbox, and zbrush, will hate triangles. keeping with quads tends to help keep things neat and tidy, especially if you're planning to export to something like zbrush. i've also found quads easier to UVW map.

however, when i am almost ready to put something in-game, before i start rigging i'll usually convert to triangles and see how it affects the overall curve, and if there's any way i can optimise it better.

SuperOstrich

I model entirely in quads to create my Zbrush base model, but before I bake out normal maps, I'll edit a few down to triangles here and there if I think it'll make my life easier when skinning/weighting the mesh to the rig. Otherwise, I leave it like it is unless I'm working on a game that is either losing performance to skinned vertices or hurting for memory.

Ruz

only girls model with tris:)
if you have even one tri in your model you will be cursed for all eternity

Tumerboy

[ QUOTE ]
only girls model with tris:)
if you have even one tri in you model you will be cursed for all eternity

[/ QUOTE ]

Aw man!!!!

Asmuel

I would recommend working on your tri's, bigger quads will just make your dick look smaller

Penzer

You don't even want to know what N-Sided will make it look like :P

To summarize in 1 sentence or less:

Model in quads, do your zbrushery, and then your final in-game optimized mesh can have tris in it.

jgarland

What Penzer said is right on the money. Mudbox can handle tris, by converting them into awkwardly shaped quads upon subdividing, but this obviously doesn't give you the best result.

You're probably better off just modeling in quads in the first place.

alyen

When I do high poly scuplting, I try to avoid tris if possible. If I do use tris I try to have them placed in an area where the deformations are very smooth and do not have fine details until I reach the highest subdivided level.
Nothing wrong with tris if you understand how it subdivides and can you use it to your advantage. Not that I know how.

Rick Stirling

But try to keep trianlges out of faces, arses and shoulders. OK, Quads are just two triangles anyway, but keeping nice quad loops in those areas helps deformation.

Elsewhere? Quadflow is nice, but on low poly models don't keep quads solely to have quads.

Mark Dygert

Triangles can destroy rings and loops, which can make rigging harder than it needs to be.

Richard Kain

It all depends on what the end result is going to be. If you are planning on strictly modeling for a game engine, and nothing else, than you can stick with triangles. If you are planning on taking your model any further, though, you are going to want to keep it quads. This is true for subsurfacing, sculpting, and any other complex manipulations. Whenever you are using modifiers to change the number of faces your model contains, it is better to have all quads. Quads react much better to subdividing and other such manipulations. Sculpting programs like Mudbox and Z-Brush prefer quad meshes, and will perform better if you keep your model free of tris.

Eventually, you are going to have to convert your model to triangles for importing it into a game engine. But that step can be handled later, and isn't that hard even if you originally build the model in quads. You just have to give it a once-over and make sure all the edges are turned properly. With modern pelt-mapping techniques, these sorts of changes won't adversly affect your UV Mapping.

Basically, its all about the workflow.