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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 6</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Thinking 
          Outside the Box</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Low Poly Tricks, Tips &amp; Techniques</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Paul &quot;<a target="_self" href="mailto:paul@loonygames.com">Villam</a>&quot; 
          Steed</font></b></font> 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0022A8" size="+1">Loft 
          / Extrude</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">When lofting 
          or extruding something you're basically just taking the outline of a 
          shape and lofting it along a path (i.e. an extrusion of that shape). 
          This technique is very useful when a primitive won't fit the bill. Lofts 
          can have as many segments or layers as you require.</font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="images/lectur07.jpg" width="396" height="234"></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0022A8" size="+1">Primitives</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Primitives are 
          a term used for a group of polygons that can be created quickly by most 
          modeling packages via a single command like 'create/box' or 'create/sphere'. 
          Primitives are excellent for starting a model and can be likened to 
          a lump of clay or putty. If primitives can't fit the need of a shape, 
          then of course a loft or Boolean would be next.</font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="images/lectur08.jpg" width="365" height="214"></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0022A8" size="+1">Boolean</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You'd think 
          that Boolean would be the coolest of tools when creating models since 
          it alters the shape of an object by using the intersection, subtraction 
          or union of another overlapping shape to subtract or add to the original 
          object's geometry.</font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="images/lectur09.jpg" width="375" height="226"></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In reality this 
          tool can be a pain in the rear since (at least in <b>3D Studio 4</b>) 
          it creates extraneous faces that are sometimes hard to find thus adding 
          to your face count unnecessarily. Still it is very, very useful when 
          it works like you want it to. </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font size="+1" color="#0022A8">Level 
          of Detail (LOD) </font></b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is when 
          only several triangles represent the object if it's no more than a few 
          pixels on the screen, and the closer you get to the object, a more detailed 
          model pops into view. This technique can be done manually, but if you 
          go up to say 10 levels of detail you'd take a memory hit because 10 
          separate objects would still have to be stored and tracked instead of 
          one. A technique called 'displacement mapping' or 'real-time deformation 
          and tessellation' based on displacement map information can overcome 
          these LOD limitations but has yet to be implemented on a large scale. 
          </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We will be using 
          LOD in <b>Quake 3:Arena</b>, but each LOD will be done manually by yours 
          truly with the distance of their respective appearance dialed in appropriately.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0022A8" size="+1">'High 
          to Low' vs. 'Low to Higher'</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">These are two 
          methods by which I model based on how I'll be using the mesh. The former 
          method is usually reserved for meshes that will be in high-rez cinematics 
          as well as in the game. Initially an unlimited face-count approach is 
          taken and the model will end up being very detailed. This high-rez version 
          can be used for advertisements, cinematics or whatever. It also serves 
          as the template to model a low-rez version of the same model to go into 
          the game. </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The latter technique 
          involves creating a mesh without considering a high-rez version and 
          keeping the face-count relatively low from the beginning and optimizing 
          on the fly. Sometimes, though I'll make a high-rez version of a character 
          or object just to have a starting point to texture. Usually Adrian is 
          our texture guy so I don't overly worry about the texturing process. 
          </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here's a comparison 
          of a hi-rez Gunner I built from <b>Quake 2</b> to the actual in-game 
          Gunner…</font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="images/gunnercomp.jpg" width="339" height="219"></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As you can see 
          the low-rez version wouldn't hold up very well on the cover of a magazine 
          despite his charming demeanor. Here's a better comparison of their relative 
          difference in complexity… </font></p>
        <p align="CENTER"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="images/gunnercompw.jpg" width="294" height="192"></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(<a href="index4.php" target="">Continued 
          on next page</a>)</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Thinking Outside the Box logo illustrated and is &copy; 1998 Dan Zalkus. 
        Thinking Outside the Box is &copy; 1998 Paul Steed. All other content 
        is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't even try it. We've got really big guns, and we're ripped, baby.</font></i></p>
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