I hope none of that’s directed at me.
As said, model in quads where you can. It’s cleaner and easier.
Modelling entirely in tris will just be tedious and it’s actually pointless. You can edit the triangulation if you need to in your 3D package anyway without having to convert it all to tris. Chances are you’ll do this when modelling a character, because the software won’t always split the quad how you want it.
My modelling knowledge is antiquated, so for the most part I’ll bow out - however:
You can’t make a geodesic sphere with just hexagons either, this is also mathematically impossible. Most solutions additionally require 36 triangles / 12 pentagons.
In that case I can only recommend to spend few months of your time learning to draw or model. Especially if your job has nothing to do with art and involves programming. 1 or 2 hours per day will be enough, drawing is better than modeling, and paper is better than digital, although digital with decent tablet will be good enough.
Get to the point where you can paint a mediocre looking humanoid with shading, folds on clothes and correct proportions from imagination. You can use Andrew Loomis books as nice starting points. There’s also that famous Betty Edwards book which can give initial jumpstart to drawing skills.
That’ll kick you out of comfort zone and will give you a nice change of perspective, which you won’t get doing programming-related or highly logical tasks.
It will also explain why the geodesic sphere argument doesn’t matter in this context.
That sounds a bit too general for me.
I am, for example, a bad pen&paper artist. But I am a “pretty decent” modeller. I can model things with Max that I could never draw, not even crude…
Geez, do you have to rip things out of context? It is “for the purposes of getting that alternative perspecitve”.
Also, if you can type, you can learn to draw. Minimum requirements for being able to draw is having one working limb and one working eye. It is trainable skill with no magic involved. There are books on that too - by Andrew Loomis, Betty Edwards and bunch of other folks. The thing is most people have misconceptions about drawing, draw a picture or two, get discouraged and stop practicing. That’s why they never improve.
during modelling, quads are better for most areas, but before baking normal maps, you should convert those quads to triangles, and make sure all the triangles flow in the proper direction to create the correct silhouette. if you bake a normal map with just quads, and export the FBX as quads, UE4 may turn some of those triangles the wrong way on import, distorting your normal map, and ruining your silhouette.
if you are using 3DS Max, you can turn the invisible edges without converting them to triangles, but many other packages, including Maya and Blender, do not have this feature, and require you to cut some quads into triangles to make sure they flow properly. either way, on export, it should be triangulated, so UE4 doesn’t have to guess.
rigging a model that is triangulated is no different from rigging a model made of quads, as long as the vertices are in the same place, it will be the same process, with the same result.
For my basic stuff for ue i use quads only in Blender.
Yes UE triangulates, but it makes sometimes a difference to calculate a quadonly mesh, or a mixed one, but that is only my personal experience.
Ngons are pest, they are completely out of control for me.
I’m so sorry for the necro, but I noticed something in this thread that really bothered me. Using quads to make a geodesic sphere might not be practical, but it’s honestly really simple to see how it’s possible. No need for hexagons or anything.
Triangles, aka Tris, is the very foundation by which all objects are created as a drawn surface or filled surface defined by 3 vertices with in 3 dimensional space. A Quad or Polygon is an invention where two triangles are used and the dividing edge is hidden and it’s fill area is defined by 4 vertices but allows for better tool usage but at it’s core be it tris or quads triangles are still used.
In most game engines the hidden edges are exposed as in most cases the target application can not support the properties that defines what is a polygon or a triangle as a feature that is unique to a given 3d application be it 3ds Max, Maya or even Blender.
Overall it’s not so much as to which is better but rather what purpose needs to be served as a “choice” as to artistic prerogative of design. In 3ds Max, which is what I use, quads offer better editable as well as better smoothing group control where tris offers the option of lower surface and vertex counts for LOD or low poly requirements.
In the end though it really does not matter as long as the result is a pleasant rendering and the surface supports the applied material. .