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Multiple triangles for rectangles

Started by brain21 Apr 28, 2003 at 2:04 PM 0 replies 250+ views

Original Post

Apr 28, 2003 at 2:04 PM

I''ve seen many 3D editors like 3D max and milkshape compose rectagle polygones out of more than 2 trangles. Are there any reasons why they don''t just use 2 triangles? Some use 4 to 16. I don''t understand. If my model is going to stay on the screen most of the time, Do I need more than 2 triangles per rectagle?? Isn''t it more efficient?? Less computations. Denis.

Spacecat

Apr 28, 2003 at 2:29 PM

"2 triangles to a rect is best" is common sense, yeah. And indeed less computationally-intensive.

But putting myself in the devil''s shoes, I can think of a few reasons why there might be more than two triangles, some are good and some are ''bad'' reasons.

Bad reasons:
1-The artist did not use the tool quite properly. (Slipups happen)
2-The tool did not behave properly. (My team DESPISES 3DMax for this)

Good reasons:
1-You have a lightmap, or a texture pass that requires a few more tris to show properly.
2-The rectangle is slightly bent, requiring more triangles.
3-The rectangle is HUGE, and since the target app uses dynamic lighting, it helps to have smaller triangles for lighting to go all right.

=^.^= Leaders and teachers should remember: It is best to offer others what they Need, not what they Want.

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