Why did GPUs abandon quads in favour of triangles (and will quads make a comeback?) *spawn

[blastingthosejets]

Rendering using quads already happens. Thats how I build my own models. Thats how many artists have been building their models for many years. Quads are already part of 3D graphics. Which means they are way too close into using in games than what you may thing. Yet they are not chosen for games, although real time sculpting use them. Instead they are being converted. If such efficiency existed it should have already been checked as many developers are looking for inventive ways to maximize fidelity without killing performance. The models are quad ready.

It exists under rights minds that can grasp it...

VD Dev managed to make a good looking open world at 60fps and thats a DS game yet looks better than any 5th gen console game...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

We interrupt this this thread to bring you some sanity. Measures are being sought to address the problem.

 

[Simon F]

I haven't read through the thread but to address the title...

Why did GPUs abandon quads in favour of triangles

...some things that immediately come to mind are:

• A triangle (ignoring trivial rejection of co-linear points) is always planar. This means there is at most one Z value per screen pixel.
  A quad is unlikely to be planar and rendering one with an implicit silhouette edge at constant per-pixel rate is not pleasant.
• A quad might not be convex! That would be nasty.
  
• Texturing. In 3D space, a triangle can be texture mapped with simple linear interpolation, which then maps to (relatively simple) hyperbolic interpolation in perspective screen space. Not so simple for quads.
  
• There is no (significant) data saving having a quad primitive over a pair of triangles using indexed or strip/fan formats.
• Modelling some objects with quads would require degenerate edges.

Is that enough for starters?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

VD Dev managed to make a good looking open world at 60fps and thats a DS game yet looks better than any 5th gen console game...

As a final note, a bit of education for you to do what you will with, your reasoning is fundamentally flawed. You've failed to notice the many variables involved and are attributing a difference in appearance based solely on the use of quads, ignoring the many differences between hardware platforms that result in differences on screen.

You've also been provided technical reasons to which your response is simply one of 'people haven't given quads a chance', failing entirely to comprehend the issues and the reasons why quads aren't given a chance.

Honestly, your ability to engage in this argument is too lacking for you to gain anything from it. If you want to understand the technical aspect of games as rendering, you need to get an education in the field. If you want to debate with others about pros and cons of various choices, you need to learn the basics of logical, fact-based discussion.