Moddeling question

[knj]

Hi i am new to this forum and to UDK, i just ordered Mastering Unreal Technology book, so i hope after that book i will have descent knowledge about UDK, but my question is related to moddeling

I am Maya user, can someone tell me (in terms of games) what is better, if you can ask that, Maya or 3d max, i am using Maya becouse of that great PLE licence.

And 2nd question, how to model in quads or tris ?

with regards knj

[Nawrot]

About what is better Maya, or Max all i hear is: whatever you like more. It is matter of preferred interface.

I am not master of modeling but i was slapped quite many times by some max gurus for creating triangles in my model. They always told me to stick to quads, no idea if it was because of my "level of professionalism" or because it is good habit in max.

For learning how to make low poly models in max, subscribe to 3d buzz, they have great AT-AT modeling tutorial, you will learn lots of tricks there.

[darthviper107]

For polygonal modeling, 3ds Max is the best (which is why it's so good for games).

For a video game model you can use either tris or quads, it doesn't matter since it will all be converted to tris for the game anyway. The main issue is if it's something like a character you need to make sure that the way you model will deform correctly.

Keeping things as quads is just for subdivision modeling or if you plan on sculpting the model in Zbrush or Mudbox.

[sueds]

I'm a maya user and from what I can tell maya lack some of polyboost tool in the latest 3dsmax but except from both are really close. Maya is prime tool for rigging and character animation and maya is widely use in the film industry ( the reason I use ); I think if you started using a tool don't change. It is as nawrot say a matter of interface. quad are better for animation. It's a better way not to have any weird deformation. Just good practice to use quad. But taht is just for animated character.

[knj]

So 3d max is better becouse of some tools for polygonal modelling ?

But i can get some nice good resoults with maya ?

I dont have time right now for learning max, but some people say it is not to hard to get from maya to max and from max to maya.


Thank you for replys :-)

[percydaman]

seriously they both have more then enough tools to get the job done. Its really 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

[darthviper107]

It's possible to get the same results with both, but for polygonal modeling (like for games) 3ds Max has lots of tools that make it easy.

[shadowof047]

Google that question of urs and u'll see there is a war out there for the answer ! anyway i got both and both r great .
I lean toward Maya a bit, but i'm not saying i like max a bit less !
take whichever u like and start learning it, cuz takes a looooooooooooong time to learn those !
You can model in quads first then "Mesh--->Triangluate" ur model later<in Maya>
Or u can model in quads and upon importing it to unreal it gets triangulated

[Star Weaver]

Quads are supposed to lead to better animation deformations for some reason or other. I'd suggest sticking with them until near the end of a low-poly model because tools like loop cut and loop/ring select make life soo much easier, and quads create the 'flow' that lets stuff like that work. Also, quads look prettier on the screen (IMO). Thirdly, you can always turn quads to tris, but not so much the other way .

As for Max vs Maya, being poor, honest, and not a student, I use Blender. :P. Traditionally kind of a bear to get set up with a UE pipeline, but the new 2.5 series betas seem to be shipping with with PSK/PSA exporters as standard plugins and native support for at least two things you can use for static meshes (collada, fbx), all of which I've not yet tested. (Dunno if any of the old ASE exporters are being updated for it, either.)