Adding details — what method is better?

AntoxaGray

Hi people, I’m new to modelling and this forum.

When I need to add details to model, what method is better — create separate element and make it «intersect»,
or add more edges and extrude?

I found it’s easier to use first method, will there be any problems with intersecting polygons in:

• Game engines (Source, UnrealEngine);
• Render engines (Vray, Mental Ray)?

p.s. I’m not using boolean, know that it’s bad thing.

Ark

Both are fine, depending on what engine your using.

The one on the left obviously saves on triangles, but would cause issues if your were using vertex lighting.

LuckyNinja

Hi, this question has got me too.

which engines use vertex lighting? also, what is vertex lighting, and does the marmoset engine use it?

Ark

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsvertex.htm

Both unreal and source use vertex lighting on there environment meshes, except unreal as the option of using lightmaps whereas source doesn't.

Im certain Marmoset uses per-pixel shading.

LuckyNinja

Ah, okay. Its just that (and I've posted in the marmoset thread) that I've been getting weird clipping errors and I've got objects intersecting in the model

Ark

LuckyNinja wrote: »

Ah, okay. Its just that (and I've posted in the marmoset thread) that I've been getting weird clipping errors and I've got objects intersecting in the model

Have you tried the new version? http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74848

LuckyNinja

I would, except that every time I try and laod it up I get an error about an access violation (!?) because something was trying to read from somewhere......damn technology...

EDIT: Okay, its fixed, and damn is it much improved over the version i was using.

I think I know where my next £30 is going

r_fletch_r

Using Booleans isnt bad. using booleans and not cleaning them up afterwards is bad. They make it much easier to get certain shapes quickly. you just have to be willing to clean them up.

One thing to note on when you do geometry like the first example is you get an area of the face that is covered. When you unwrap the model you will have an area of wasted uv space. if the area is small in comparison to your model then its not a problem but for large ares you can end up wasting alot of your uv tile on invisible geometry. In this case its a better idea to spend the extra polygons. Unwrap and bake the lighting on both of those and you will see what i mean