# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Performance vs. Quality

|previous=Cheat the 3D
|subcat=Advice
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### Mesh

:   **Polygon Count** - when you work with meshes in 3D, be aware that
    the memory usage in Blender with reference to meshes comes from the
    number of faces (or vertices) the mesh contains. That means that if
    you have many useless faces (such as 55 faces on the side of a mesh
    that are as flat as one face), the number of faces will directly
    affect the Render time of Images and Animations. Also remember that
    for smooth rounded meshes, you do not need an infinite number of
    faces to make it look really nice and smooth. You actually don\'t
    need that many faces to keep a smooth slope looking smooth when
    viewed from the side. The viewer\'s eye will not actually identify
    every flat face, but will trace it as a smooth curve.\
:   **Face Structure - 4-side (quad) vs.3-side (tri)** - Poly Count is
    very important when working in 3D graphics, and depending on the
    type of mesh you are making you could be wasting a vast number of
    faces because they are not the right structure. For example, if you
    want a smooth object, you can make it look mostly smooth when viewed
    from the side if you make it with well-structured 3-vertex faces.
    You will also yield the same results with fewer faces than if you
    use 4-vertex faces. Another example is that if you need to apply
    UVTexture, or have something to animate, a mesh being evenly
    deformed will yield a lower face-count if it is a 4-vertex versus a
    3-vertex face-structure.\

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It is worth bearing in mind, however, that most graphics libraries deal
exclusively with triangles. This means if you are planning to export
your mesh to a game or other external 3D application, whether you use
quads or triangles will make no difference as all quads will likely be
converted into two triangles anyway.`</br>`{=html}

### Lighting

:   **Using RayShadows or Buffer Shadows** - There are a few options you
    have for using shadows. Ray Shadows use an advanced algorithm to
    trace the edge of any interfering objects and create a perfect
    shadow onto the receiving object(s); however, the Ray Shadow
    calculation is memory-intensive and can seriously slow down your
    Render-Time. Buffer Shadows, on the other hand, use a different
    algorithm for similar results. The difference is that buffer shadows
    use a bit-rate of shadow \"pixels\" that fill in the shadowing area.
    You can adjust the bit-rate to make the shadow higher or lower
    quality. This calculation is much more memory-friendly, and your
    Render-Time will not jump up as much as with Ray Shadows. An
    interesting topic because this will change with better hardware
    performance and eventually won\'t matter. Until we get into 3D.

