Low Poly Buildings
polycounter lvl 3
I've been looking at the models of low poly buildings and I have a question. Most of the ones I see are made like this one: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EVohCR7kPAM/Ut3RBl2eEpI/AAAAAAAADWw/_HHyCwuTATk/s1600/Low+Poly+House.jpg with the windows and doors built from the walls.
If the goal is to have the least amount of polygons possible, it would be more efficient to just make a window and stick it on a one polygon wall. By building from the wall itself, you get a ton more polys, so what's the benefit? I'm sure there's a good one (just about everyone does it), but I can't figure it out.
If the goal is to have the least amount of polygons possible, it would be more efficient to just make a window and stick it on a one polygon wall. By building from the wall itself, you get a ton more polys, so what's the benefit? I'm sure there's a good one (just about everyone does it), but I can't figure it out.
Replies
In the one you linked, they can get high texture resolution on the door, potentially what the player will be staring at, rather than if they painted the door directly on the wall.
The first building as the door and frame as a separate object from the house. The wall it's attached to is just a single polygon, so the house is only 88 tris. The second building is made with the door extruded from the wall, breaking that polygon up, so that house is 94 tris. Not a huge difference but over a lot of models for every door, window, etc, that adds up.
As just about game makes their models like the second building, I'm sure there's a good reason for it, but I can't figure it out.
Also, if you build the doors and windows in, you can just make one of each on the texture and unwrap all the other ones to it. You can't do that if you make the whole wall a single polygon.
Machines these days can handle tons of polygons, but texture memory can still be problematic. So often it makes sense to save texture space over polygons.
I'll be sure to build like that from now on.