Ok, why -
WHY
WHY
- is it such a big deal if some BL modders want their models a bit higher poly than is "normal"? It's a stylistic choice - one that hurts nobody - and I kind of like it. I've received compliments on my BMW 320 because it looks "realistic", and guess what? It has a bit higher poly count than most vehicles of that type.
How about we pay attention more to the quality of the model rather than the smallest number of vertices we can make it have. Keep in mind that Blockland is a sandbox game, where everything doesn't have to match up and be just right.
/endminirant
Completely loving correct. You can model with as many or as few details as you like. As long as your structures are believable, it's your choice what you do.
That being said.
Sometimes the polycount is high not because of detail level, but simply because of incompetence. People use inefficient modeling techniques all the time and end up doubling or even sometimes tripling their tri counts because of it, even with low poly models. Like say, 16 sides on every cylinder of a model, instead of smaller objects having less. Or leaving unecessary subdivisions on edges that were created while modeling. Or, poinlessly intersecting edges. Here's an example.
Take an extremely complex piece of the shining laser. Lots of subdivisions and such.
This piece is not 100% solid. I overlap faces
without intersecting them wherever possible. This is the most efficient way to make this piece. The least efficient way to make this piece would be to make it a completely solid object. If you did that, and then explode/seperate it the same way as the other...
You end up with this. See all the extra unnecessary edges and verticies required to make it? If you're not convinced, take a look at the
3D views of them side-by-side (turn on the "X-Ray" shade mode).
And a comparison of the tricounts, after exporting. The first is the non-solid piece. This saves nearly 250 triangles.
THIS is how you do high poly.
