Basic questions about modelling for games and especially source engine.

Manual = Better results if you know what you're doing.

Automatic = Much faster, rarely as good as manual but difference can be negligible if used properly, and is usually much faster.

Going from high poly to low poly = time consuming, because it needs to be done manually most of the time, or involves careful and limited use of automatic tools. However it does make construction easier, because you can build the high poly version and then cut it to low poly at the end.

Going from low to high poly = harder, because if you change the high poly significantly your low poly won't be accurate any more, so you need to plan, however if you can plan it's much faster than compressing a high poly model.

In texturing it's much simpler. Work in 4096x4096 and scale it down at the end, that way the texture can be made bigger again if needed.

 

Ah, thanks.


My rocks still look like crap. =[ Maybe I should try boxier stuff, making things look "natural" is hard.

 

Yes it is. However making things look realistically unnatural is also hard.