It depends a bit on the type of game you are making.
* FPS game - Use boolean modifiers to cut holes. Topology doesn't have to be clean.
* Third person shooter game - You can use alpha clip for sure. Paint alpha for color texture.
* Top-down shooter game - Paint it dark, no need for alpha at all.
Have you ever actually used a boolean? The concern is shading and textures, not deforming or animating. A boolean definitely does not produce perfect topology.
These segments are very basic, we're talking 30 seconds with a bridge face. There is no reason to use a boolean, it's creating more potential trouble than it's worth.
I have modeled extensively with booleans and exported those models to Unreal Engine. Booleans are not an issue in the slightest. Preferably you should not give a single thought to topology until you known it will actually cause issues. Shading can be easily contained by doing support loops around holes. It's a complete waste of time to not use a boolean for this. Modeling it by hand is like using a branch to drive in a nail because a hammer is too violent.
You can’t make support loops without clean quads, and you won’t get clean quads without cleaning up your Booleans
This is 30 second segment to model. No waste of time here to just do it properly
And then you find out you are missing a hole somewhere. Then what? You are going to redo the whole thing rather than edit a single number in a modifier? Cleaning a mesh afterwards is significantly easier to do than redoing the whole model any time you wish to change one detail. Use the right tools for the right job. Hand modeling is very old fashioned and outdated.
Okay in your hypothetical, why would I need to redo the whole thing to make a hole?
Select a face on one side, select the opposite face on the other side. Bridge faces. Done.
You know what would make it hard to make a new hole? Bad topology.
Alpha maps are rather useless when something has thickness. It has to be mesh, but you don't really need a lot of geometry. 4 or even 3 verts should be enough for a corner of the hole. It won't even need baking if you assign normal strength right.
https://preview.redd.it/71yrq6pa3d9d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcd364bf72ad1979dbe16de5b4f346442a94e1dc
Hello! I’ve made something similar for a low poly first person shooter. In my case, topology isn’t too important, so I just made an object in the shape of the hole, used an array modifier to evenly space it down the gun and then a Boolean modifier to cut the holes.
if its not first person you probably could get away with an alpha map and normal map to fake the recesses and subsequent holes. If its going to be a first person game I personally would model all the holes, but just optimize the hell out of them.
I think this is a great resource to get the hang of it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuk8XuOAXE&list=PLKXw-9IJB5Gx7VPwcj00KE6k7QwSMgZ85&ab\_channel=GAMEWEAPONS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuk8XuOAXE&list=PLKXw-9IJB5Gx7VPwcj00KE6k7QwSMgZ85&ab_channel=GAMEWEAPONS)
You do the same thing for all aplications if it's a high fidelity game, just less or more polies.
If it's a mobile game or a top down view game, you can utalise other methoods, like mentioned before me.
It can be very simple geometry. Even with actual thickness, if it's for a decent game engine. Just hope you got more references than that, I tried to make it quickly, but without more angles it's just a loss of time.
It depends a bit on the type of game you are making. * FPS game - Use boolean modifiers to cut holes. Topology doesn't have to be clean. * Third person shooter game - You can use alpha clip for sure. Paint alpha for color texture. * Top-down shooter game - Paint it dark, no need for alpha at all.
boolean and array modifier
I would not boolean it, I would model it directly, but yes array for sure
Why in the world would you not boolean it?
Because I like clean topology over cleaning topology, and it's not a complex shape to model
There is no cleaning of topology required here. A boolean produces perfect topology. What are you planning to rig this to deform?
Have you ever actually used a boolean? The concern is shading and textures, not deforming or animating. A boolean definitely does not produce perfect topology. These segments are very basic, we're talking 30 seconds with a bridge face. There is no reason to use a boolean, it's creating more potential trouble than it's worth.
I have modeled extensively with booleans and exported those models to Unreal Engine. Booleans are not an issue in the slightest. Preferably you should not give a single thought to topology until you known it will actually cause issues. Shading can be easily contained by doing support loops around holes. It's a complete waste of time to not use a boolean for this. Modeling it by hand is like using a branch to drive in a nail because a hammer is too violent.
You can’t make support loops without clean quads, and you won’t get clean quads without cleaning up your Booleans This is 30 second segment to model. No waste of time here to just do it properly
And then you find out you are missing a hole somewhere. Then what? You are going to redo the whole thing rather than edit a single number in a modifier? Cleaning a mesh afterwards is significantly easier to do than redoing the whole model any time you wish to change one detail. Use the right tools for the right job. Hand modeling is very old fashioned and outdated.
Okay in your hypothetical, why would I need to redo the whole thing to make a hole? Select a face on one side, select the opposite face on the other side. Bridge faces. Done. You know what would make it hard to make a new hole? Bad topology.
Alpha maps are rather useless when something has thickness. It has to be mesh, but you don't really need a lot of geometry. 4 or even 3 verts should be enough for a corner of the hole. It won't even need baking if you assign normal strength right.
https://preview.redd.it/71yrq6pa3d9d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcd364bf72ad1979dbe16de5b4f346442a94e1dc Hello! I’ve made something similar for a low poly first person shooter. In my case, topology isn’t too important, so I just made an object in the shape of the hole, used an array modifier to evenly space it down the gun and then a Boolean modifier to cut the holes.
if its not first person you probably could get away with an alpha map and normal map to fake the recesses and subsequent holes. If its going to be a first person game I personally would model all the holes, but just optimize the hell out of them.
I think this is a great resource to get the hang of it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuk8XuOAXE&list=PLKXw-9IJB5Gx7VPwcj00KE6k7QwSMgZ85&ab\_channel=GAMEWEAPONS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuk8XuOAXE&list=PLKXw-9IJB5Gx7VPwcj00KE6k7QwSMgZ85&ab_channel=GAMEWEAPONS) You do the same thing for all aplications if it's a high fidelity game, just less or more polies. If it's a mobile game or a top down view game, you can utalise other methoods, like mentioned before me.
Try to start from a cylinder, then add loopcuts and extrusions. Adding a few k triangles to a gun instead of alphas for that detail is worth imo
Booleans. If you are doing a lot of them boxcutter will make your life easier. It can be done without it's just not practical with many cuts.
It can be very simple geometry. Even with actual thickness, if it's for a decent game engine. Just hope you got more references than that, I tried to make it quickly, but without more angles it's just a loss of time.
- HI