Some people recommend quadrilaterals over triangles. I know that for games it is better to model with triangles because that is what the pipeline expects. But are there plugins that allow quadrilaterals to be transformed into to triangles?
Since a triangle is always on a plain but a quadrilateral can’t, I am wondering why some modellers consider quadrilateral base modelling more comfortable.
Quads make model structure readable, allow predictable subdivision, and game models end up as triangles but are most often worked as quads and triangulated before baking and export.
You would model with triangles when reducing polygon count for a game model, or making a game prop that only needs to hold basic form, textures and silhouette.
No need for a plugin, triangulate is one of the options in Blender’s built-in modifiers. If you need mesh converted, just apply it.
As JA12 said,keep with quads,never use Ngons and only use triangles when there is no other choice (most game engines will automatically convert quads to triangles.
I know that for games it is better to model with triangles because that is what the pipeline expects.
You have to differentiate between result and modeling. You can of course also model in tris or Ngons when the workflow requires it. But you better model in quads, since the looptools for example does not work at a tri mesh.
And you have to differentiate where you want to use it then.
For rendering a animated character, where you usually subidvide the mesh then, you better keep the mesh in quads. Since tris in combination with SDS produces poles and caused by that bad deformations then.
For games you better triangulate the mesh before exporting it. The game engine makes it to a tri geometry then anyways.
Nowadays game engines like Unity does also import quad meshes. But it still works internally with tris. And the underlying triangulation that gets created at import can differ from the underlying triangulation in your modeling software. And then it can happen that a character has visible bending problems because a edge goes in the wrong direction. Or that a terrain mesh shows a face where there shouldn’t be one since the triangluation grabbed the wrong vertices.
quad whenever you can, tris when you have to.
often try to keep it 100% quad when its a high poly model. if ur using a low poly model, try to stick to quads, and use tris when you have to.
To jump on the band wagon with everyone else. Keep your model 100% quad unless you absolutely have to use a triangle. And you never actually HAVE to use a triangle, its just that some time the work around to put a quad where a triangle now goes can take quite a bit of time, so you have to ask yourself it its worth it.
You can triangulate before you export. But thats an extra step for all but a very basic (or perhaps a custom made) game engine. Unity, for example, automatically triangulates everything when you import it, and i believe the other big names are the same. The only reason you would want to pre-triangulate is if there is a part of your mesh thats calculating the triangles in the wrong direction and you have to manually turn the edge to fix it.