Hi danperk, so for your shark example there I wanted to mention the modes "Patch type: Fewer patches, more control points" and the new "Patch type: More patches, fewer control points" will have the exact same shape. The difference is in how patches get glued together.

The first mode which is the default combines things by radiating out from extraordinary vertices, generally making longer strips following edge flows. The patches immediately around an extraordinary vertex will be degree 6 and the neighboring ones that will get glued get degree elevated from degree 3 to degree 6, so that's what makes them have more control points. Although there are quite a lot of control points it's not really something to worry about very much since it is not likely that you will be doing control point editing of them directly and they are evenly dispersed.

The new "Patch type: More patches, fewer control points" will keep the degree 6 patches immediately around an extraordinary vertex to be separate and glue together the regular areas of the mesh which then get to stay degree 3 and thus have fewer control points. But it will have a lot more small surfaces around extraordinary vertices and so have more little edges and the overall structure won't quite follow edge flows as much.

One method is not really automatically better than the other in all cases but with the new setting you can choose between these tradeoffs if you want.

- Michael