to poly or not to poly?

that is the question :P

anyway what im wondering is

...should i use polygons on my plane model?

what will they change?

how should i apply them?

and low or high poly count,which is better?

hopefully answers will help others too

that is the question :P

Got me confused with the title really...

anyway what im wondering is

...should i use polygons on my plane model?

What else can you use?

Don't get your question:

A. is it mesh vs poly (max user)

B. is it poly(as in quads) vs tris (which is still a polygon after all).

C. something else that eludes me

what will they change?

who?

how should i apply them?

what?

and low or high poly count,which is better?

32k is the hard limit for A2.

Low poly count (without taking that too far), with high poly baked normal, and AO, lowest sections possible (needs a proper UV)

hopefully answers will help others too

if there is a question to answer, can't really find it here....

perhaps he means poly vs NURBS? Or other form of primitive? If yes then poly. ArmA doesnt understand anything else.

You can model in nurms and then convert to polys... but the end result must be in polys.

As far as 'how to apply' polygons: There is quite an art to mesh flow. Basically, you want the polygons to follow the form of your aircraft. If you plan to model in nurms, when you convert it, they should follow the form okay. You will probably have to reduce certain things since you can't go from high detail to low or low to high in the same object like you can with polygons.

Don't quote me on this but I think that I recall hearing that a good target for p-count on a vehicle is 20k triangles in any given LOD.

sry forgot to add im using o2(arma1 type)

what i meamt by should i poly is, do i really need to or can i leave them out and if did i apply them would anything change

and by "how to apply"

should i do it like the 4point faces for example?

what i meamt by should i poly is, do i really need to or can i leave them out and if did i apply them would anything change

and by "how to apply"

should i do it like the 4point faces for example?

:confused:

- If you mean should you use quads (4 vertices) or triangles (3 vertices), it doesn't matter. Actually in O2 (or any editor) I prefer keeping it mostly in quads (i.e 'squarised'), because that means less lines in the editor windows and it is easier to understand the shape of the object when it gets big and complex in shape. Only use tris if it is really needed. The game converts them into tris automatically anyway. Only in shadow lods you have to have it triangulased.

- How to apply. Use the primitives from the create menu as the basis as much as possible. E.g. if you make a simple cardboard box, better make it with the box tool, rather than first create 8 vertices and then connect them with 6 faces (quads). You can then use the editing tools to modify the object if needed.

If that didn't answer the question, I try to give a small example:

I use the cylinder primitive frequently. Eg to make a flower vase (simplish).

1) create a cylinder with N (e.g 8) segments in length (segmentsZ) and and M (e.g 16) in radius

2) use the scale tool to shrink and widen the each circle of vertices (the segments in Z direction, to make it look like a vase. By moving those points you can make some segments longer or shorter.

3) If you want to make the vase hollow, you could use the extrude tool. This is a good way to generate simple tube like interior. If you really want it to look realistic inside too then... delete the faces at the top of the vase (only the faces, not vertices - press D), make the exact copy of the outside (copy and paste), reverse the faces (press w when faces selected) and scale it bit slimmer and connect it to the mouth (manually create faces around the mouth).

4) By default the surface lines should be smooth (if not press I). For those parts which have sharp edges between faces (e.g. usually where the bottom meets the walls) select the bottom and other lines (the vertices) and presss U. The sharp lines are drawn widened in the editor when faces selected.

It was already mentioned you should keep the section and face count as low as possible. To make it clearer...section count is (mostly) the number of different texture and rvmat combinations you have used. To keep the face count down, make the rarely seen parts quite simple (like bottom of a car). In the above example the inside of the vase could be just a cylinder. Small objects and bumps like nuts, bolt and rivets is better to be left for the normal map. The parts you cannot see in the game don't have to modelled at all (inside walls of a house you cannot get in).

sry forgot to add im using o2(arma1 type)

You should use arma2 tools for arma2 projects.