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Description
well I've uploaded this in 3dsmax tutorials but it counts for every 3d program (it has to be)

the facts are:

- triangles are 3 vertex points connected to each other, which makes a nice triangle (hence the name) now triangles is as low as you can go with making a plane. you can't make a plane out of 2 vertex points.

- polys or polygons is the name of a group. it's a name for every plane that it created out of vertex points. the important part of this is that a polygon has no minimum or maximum when you're talking about vertex points. so a polygon can be a triangle, square...5 pointer..and so on and so forth.

so what I've created in this picture is an example, where I have 2 cylinders. each with 116 triangles. now I've used the "edit to poly" modifier and set the poly limit to 3, which makes all of the polys triangles.

I converted the other cylinder to an editable poly and removed all of the inner lines - except 1.

as you can see this gives dramatic results when you put your polygon counter (only in 3ds max 8) to polygons.

The cylinder on the left still has 116 polys but the cylinder on the right has 3! oh wow! I'm a master

No... the biggest concern here is rendering time and game engine modelling. as you may know game engines and 3d programs always use triangles to calculate shadows, diffuse maps...anything and everything really. so polygon count just isn't a real way to count your model. some polys can have 7 vertex points, some 3. you're not really viewing the real trouble an engine can have with your model.

Description
well I've uploaded this in 3dsmax tutorials but it counts for every 3d program (it has to be)

the facts are:

- triangles are 3 vertex points connected to each other, which makes a nice triangle (hence the name) now triangles is as low as you can go with making a plane. you can't make a plane out of 2 vertex points.

- polys or polygons is the name of a group. it's a name for every plane that it created out of vertex points. the important part of this is that a polygon has no minimum or maximum when you're talking about vertex points. so a polygon can be a triangle, square...5 pointer..and so on and so forth.

so what I've created in this picture is an example, where I have 2 cylinders. each with 116 triangles. now I've used the "edit to poly" modifier and set the poly limit to 3, which makes all of the polys triangles.

I converted the other cylinder to an editable poly and removed all of the inner lines - except 1.

as you can see this gives dramatic results when you put your polygon counter (only in 3ds max 8) to polygons.

The cylinder on the left still has 116 polys but the cylinder on the right has 3! oh wow! I'm a master

No... the biggest concern here is rendering time and game engine modelling. as you may know game engines and 3d programs always use triangles to calculate shadows, diffuse maps...anything and everything really. so polygon count just isn't a real way to count your model. some polys can have 7 vertex points, some 3. you're not really viewing the real trouble an engine can have with your model.