Is it possible to take a normal model with 4 faces and turn it into a triangle

Support Modeling
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hello so i read for game models its best to be in triangles can i take a finished model and somehow turn it into triangles ?

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https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/face/triangulate_faces.html

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thank you how does this effect texture do i have to re texture the model ? :slight_smile:

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The easiest thing is to try, don’t you think?
Make a backup, turn your model into triangles and see if you can spot any differences.

Personally, I’ve never tried it.
I don’t make models for games/real time. I figure that depending on the topology of the base model and the resolution of the textures, you may have problems with aliasing or towards the seams :man_shrugging:

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5

yeah i will give it a try :slight_smile:

6

You don’t need to triangulate yourself, game engines automatically do it

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okey budt what is the use of the triangulate modifier then in blender ?

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… because at times making something with triangles is what one wants to do. Not everything is about making something for a game.

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It should not effect them, internally every quad face is made up of 2 triangles anyway, Blender is triangulating quad faces automatically all the time for you (similar to a game engine).

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Note the statistics, the default cube is in reality 12 triangles!

What is important is how the triangles shade (react to light) depending on the triangulation you get shading artifacts, which is why topology and edge flow is important.

This is the default cube but I moved just one vertex in edit mode, the quad faces are no longer flat and the triangles become visible, with ngons the situation gets worse as triangulation gets less predictable, there is more than one way to triangulate an ngon, qauds triangulate more logically.

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Just put a triangulation modifier and youre done.
If you have a plans to bake normal maps - its albsolutely mandatory to triangulate model first, when do the bakes. This model with triangulation will became your “main” model for all purposes: baking normal maps, texturing, exporting to game engines.

Without using a triangulated models, after normal map bakes and leaving triangulation for any game engine, you almost 99% will get a shading artifacts because of wrong tangents.

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