So. I’ve been getting the hang of Blender, and am well underway to creating my first animated model (I’m very excited). As I’m pondering how this is going to fit into my graphics engine (Irrlicht), I’m noticing that all Low Poly models that I find are made entirely of triangles.
Now, I was of the understanding that triangles are bad. Is this not the case when creating low poly models?
Not so much. The main reason for avoiding triangles is that they are bad for subsurfing, and genuinely low-poly models are not subsurfed. Quads are also better for modelling techniques that depend heavily on edge loops, but that’s more a matter of individual preference.
Best wishes,
Matthew
While it is true, that triangles are the death for surface subdivision, the second part is somewhat inaccurate.
The second reason why you avoid triangles in high poly models is because they do not deform properly when animating - it has nothing to do with preference or modelling technique really.
And just for the record, a quad are two triangles under the hood, they are just handled differently. It is often the case that low poly models are shown triangulated, but still are made of a perfect quad structure, simply because the low poly versions are very often the base mesh for sculpting, which also loves quads. So you got a low poly mesh with quads, sculpt detail, bake the resulting high poly mesh with normal maps on the low poly one, and on export you triangulate the mesh as many game engines (still) require it.
It has to do with the data structure. Somehow you got to define how to store geometry, and there it matters how many vertices you got and in what order you store them for the engine to know in which direction the positive surface normal points.
Usually geometry within game engines is stored in 3 point triangles, where the direction is clockwise to determine the front of the triangle (which is the positive surface normal)
That makes sense. Thanks you 
I’ll do some reading on the best formats for games. This is my first 3d project (Both in modeling and in games), so I still have a great deal of learning to do. I don’t really expect to ever have it finished. With teams these things can take years, and I’m working on it solo. Mostly, I just enjoy learning, and this is something I’ve wanted to learn for quite some time. I just never realized that the tools were available for it. When I first looked into modeling, all I could really find was 3ds Max and Maya (Both of which cost thousands of dollars). Finding Blender has been a god sent.
My graphics engine supports md2, md3, and .x formats. Since Blender has a built-in add-on for .x, I figured I would go that route, but I can always find a converter if I discover one of the other formats works better.
Thanks again. You guys are always incredibly helpful.