Thread by @delaneykingrox

Quads don't exist as a seperate thing to triangles, they are just two triangles with an edge that isn't displayed.

The hidden edge is usually recalculated in programs like Maya and 3dmax (edit poly)to be between the two closes verts.

Buuuut that doesn't happen in a game engine. The moment you import, that middle edge is picked for you.

A quad will fold one of two ways, depending on the orientation of that middle edge.

This won't matter if you have a shit tonne of small triangles, which is what adding extra loops to joints does.

That is neither efficient or controlled.

The trick is to orientate the middle edge to point along the line of compression and expansion. In other words, along the direction of a muscle.

In some places, you want that edge to be placed so the geometry folds.

The more polys you have, the less deformation becomes about how your triangles fold. It is about vertices having their weights smoothly spread out.

And that leads to another problem- drinking straw joints.

The more verts you have, the more you have to describe how elbows, knees and shoulders shape when they deform. Enter corrective blend shapes, extra bones and the need for more bone weights.

Those costs are going up with each fix.

Ever single triangle orientated to deform, every vertex used, every model hitting budget. Old school is about efficiency.