low poly modeling techniques

[Spyrewolf]

i have just found a low poly modelling technique from the XSI web site,

it is targeted for XSI Softimage...

but it has some low poly modelling techniques that apply across the board for all programs especially check out the alpha/normal mapping tutorials they're very good indeed!

it is in PDF format so make sure you have adobe acrobat reader installed.

http://www.softimage.com/education/tuto ... kool01.pdf

[Juutis]

Great tricks indeed!
I especially like the use of only 2 polys with alpha map on the end of a cylinder. Very clever. It made me realize how powerful alpha maps are, I really gotta start using more of them.

[scott]

how many pollys would need to be removed to make it better to use the alpha mask insetad.

if you wanted a hole in a block you would have to make 4 new blocks around the hole

this would increase the polly count by 4

would this be enough pollys to justify using an alpha map, you may not know the answer to this but i dont know how the engine handles pollys and alpha maps.

[Jay]

There is no big rendering lag if you use alphamaps, because todays graphics cards are already build to render everything with alpha channels - the 32Bit colors are really 8bit for red, 8bit for green, 8bit for blue and then 8bit for the alpha value, while in most cases today the 16bit are each 5bit for red, green and blue - and 1bit for the alpha channel just saying if it's gonna be rendered or not. This is called alpha-testing and is much faster than alpharendering which allows you to have semitransparent polys like windows or water.

RF goes some middlepath here: either if you have 32 or 16bit color depht, you always have 8bit transparency. RF's alpharendering (which also includes the semi-transparent brushes like windows or water) would be faster in 32bit because in 16bit you have to do some strange tricks to get 8bit transparency which then costs you time - or would you like to have only 256 colors?
I believe this was actually the reason why we got 24bit mode - 16bit colors and 8bit alpha. Problem is, newer cards don't suport this mode anymore. (i believe we once had 24bit mode, could be wrong though). Therefore, i see no reason to run RF in 16bit mode...

(This is what i think, cannot say it is true or not, maybe QoD could say more about this)

A rectangular hole would not justify the use of an alphamap in my opinion, but if you want a round hole alphamps can decrease your polycount greatly.

In general round shapes are better done with alphamaps.

I've got a picture of a door here - the door has only 2 triangles. If i made it out of level geometry i would have at least 50.

[QuestOfDreams]

Polys with any kind of transparency are costly to render because they have to be sorted manually by their distance to the camera (graphics cards cannot handle overlapping transparent polys properly)