Spline Modelling

[G1996]

Hi all, I always see beatifull ships here however most of them are enormous amount of Polygons. So i don't know if you guys allready use this. Cause it can save enormous amount of Polygons. I post a pic (FROM A TUTORIAL) To show you the difference.

No criticism however i thought if you can make the hull etc with less you can create nice models with less polygons so there can be more in...

 

[KrisWood]

Splines are made with bezier curves rather than polygons and are not possible to use in a game engine. When they are converted to geometry as in your image they tend to have considerably more polygons than if you model it with polies from scratch. I've used splne modeling in my ship hulls before though and it does allow for extremely accurate renditions of ship plans (they're drawn with curves after all). It just takes a small matter of expertise to get those splines into as little geometry as possible.

 

[G1996]

oh i thought it was less polygons. cause it only gives One poly on 3ds max..

When changing it to editable poly. :will

 

[KrisWood]

Convert it to editable mesh in 3dsmax if you want to see the way it'll look in a game engine.

 

[G1996]

if i make a line with it. and extrude it. The top is still only one poly... think it is a small advantage and you can werk very rapido.

 

[Rider88]

if i make a line with it. and extrude it. The top is still only one poly... think it is a small advantage and you can werk very rapido.

There is still no advantage. Game engines understand the polys as triangles only. So if your extruded shape has the form different from the triangle it would be divided to triangles right after you export it from 3d max. Just convert your object to editable patch, for example, and you'll see what I am talking about.

 

[G1996]

okay now i saw it.. however still think that's quicker?

 

[nightwatcher]

Modeling is not always about "quicker"...

there are thinks like:
- used to model in a work flow that appeals to you
- to have the control about how detailed (Triangle amount)
- how precise the model will get
....

these are a few examples why someone did'nt jump on spline modeling.
Yes, you can all archive that with splines too, but it has also reasons why someone uses mesh or poly modeling...

 

[G1996]

yea of course but what i read of it seems to be quicker and offcourse if you go poly editing you get more detailed maybe.

I think not to say that the others don't have skills or something. but i think you need a little more skill to just see how many lines. you need for the best result and cause poly editing is a little easier. its for most persons better.

 

[KrisWood]

I use splines in some of my models to trace the lines of the hull in the plans. After that I either convert them to an editable poly and remove as many triangles as possible, or I simply do poly modeling using the splines as a guide. Either works just as well though the latter usually has a lower and more balanced triangle count. Spline modeling tends to turn out a uniform number of triangles over the entire surface. This results in higher concentrations of triangles where the lines are closer together. While this might make for nice rendering, it does not make for efficient game models or ease of game modeling. Fortunately in 3dsmax while in editable poly mode you can select and remove edge loops which speeds up the process a bit but still is an extra step when you could have just poly modeled in the first place.