Topic: Hellions! Need some help - Modelers! Who knows Poly-Reducers>?

[Dizzy]

Remember these? There are 9 or so of them. All have WAY too many polys. I once heard of a program that simplifies, or reduces polys? Need to drop prolly half the polys from these nine ships or they wont be playable in a game and I have them planned for a server... Anyone help there?

Oh, and btw, Atolm was in the texture file, but there was no readme. Where are these found, who made them, and are their anymore than just the 9?

[Azel]

Remember these? There are 9 or so of them. All have WAY too many polys. I once heard of a program that simplifies, or reduces polys? Need to drop prolly half the polys from these nine ships or they wont be playable in a game and I have them planned for a server... Anyone help there?

Oh, and btw, Atolm was in the texture file, but there was no readme. Where are these found, who made them, and are their anymore than just the 9?

I designed, textured and made them
As for the High poly problem sorry mate( I did the models when I was still very green on the modelling aspect)...I cannot do anything about it Unless I remake them(and Thats not going to happen) Sorry.

[Dizzy]

They rock, Azel!

But there has to be a program that reduces the polys automatically. I heard of someone in this forum using a modeling program that checked to see if the model had any polys that wernt connected or open or, Im not using the right terminology, but it also reduced any unecessary polys... (simplified the polys)

As they are, they are so full of polys they would bog the game down unless you had a fairly recent rig. I'd love to use these ships, no one else has ever done such a fine alien looking model(s) and they must be used, rather than only be looked at in the model viewer...

[wulf111]

3DSmax has an optimizer command that could reduce the poly count

[Dizzy]

Thx wulf111.

ok, who here knows how to use it?

[jayvt3]

the M6 program that i am learning on has the same a poly reducer.
also i have had no problem running them in game as replacments for the monsters and i have been using the computers at my college's resource center.

[Dizzy]

so, jayvt3, you think this could be tackled? These things probably have someowhere near 10k+ polys. You think it would be possible to cut them to 3-5k?

[markyd]

I have played all verisons of sfc with models with a poly count in the region of 20k... whats wrong with 10k?

[markyd]

As a side note.... Here is a great way of reducing Polys that I use!!!!!!

Select an object. > Modify panel > Modifiers List > Object?Space Modifiers > MultiRes

The MultiRes modifier reduces the memory overhead needed to render models by decreasing the number of vertices and polygons. This is useful not only within 3ds max but for game and Web content creators who export models for use outside of the program. MultiRes offers several advantages over the Optimize modifier, including faster operation and the ability to specify reduction as an exact percentage or vertex count.

Good Luck!

[wulf111]

thanks for that tip markyd i will sure try that out on a few of my models

[markyd]

No probs Wulf.... Glad this helps! 

[Dizzy]

Well, 10k polies for a model isnt a problem, really... it becomes a problem when you have 4x of them on the map at the same time in addition to all the other ships. You'd need a Pentium 2.0GHz and a top notch vidcard to run that.

Who would be willing to send a Hellion thru a poly reducer? 

[wulf111]

shoot it my way Diz ill run it thru

[wulf111]

my email is jspeckma@sarcom.com

[Dizzy]

my email is jspeckma @ sarcom.com

Plus Karma for ya! Sending it in a min.

[wulf111]

the hellion you sent me is now optimized i was able to shave off about 35% of the polys form the fly.mod (from 7500+ polys down to about 4500 polys) and a whopping 45% for the fly_brk.mod (from 7000+ down to aprox 3400 polys)

the reduction did mess up the texture placement a little bit but not enough that they couldnt be corrected with a little tweaking.

you should have the file in your email by now Diz full

Azel that is one hell of a ship i wish i was half the modeler you are kudos to ya

[Dizzy]

WHOOHOO!!!!
Ok, 1 down 9 more to go

I can feel a MOD comin on!


EDIT: Seriously, how long did it take, how hard was it and how much money would it take you to finish the other 9?

Also, Im surprised you cut that many polys. Havent looked at it yet, gotta get my email back up.

[wulf111]

EDIT: Seriously, how long did it take, how hard was it and how much money would it take you to finish the other 9?

Honestly it only took me about 5 minutes to reduce both files poly count wise, now as for the texture tweaking (wich i have no idea as to how to do) that might take a bit of work.

If you want and if we have Azel's permission i would happily try to reduce the remaining ships for you.

[Red_Green]

Have they been tested in game. Cause sometimes reducing polies cretes holes or warps in the mesh, that show up in game.

[Dizzy]

EDIT: Seriously, how long did it take, how hard was it and how much money would it take you to finish the other 9?

Honestly it only took me about 5 minutes to reduce both files poly count wise, now as for the texture tweaking (wich i have no idea as to how to do) that might take a bit of work.

If you want and if we have Azel's permission i would happily try to reduce the remaining ships for you.

Ill talk to Azel. I dont think he will mind.

My frame rate b4 was 99fps and then after your Frankenstein treatment, 124fps. A nice improvement, but not as far as I wanted to go. Would it be possible to either run it thru the poly reducer again or... there is this area on the back of the model that has 4x cylindrical protrusions that stick out. Well those cylinders have many more polys than are needed for that model. That whole area is just a frame rate killer. Here's a general observation about the way this ship is done; The texture is so generally applied to the model that even with significant mesh changes, the textures remain about the same. I'd like to cut the polys down in this area drastically. It may further improve their fps rate. Currently, Im running a fast rig. Other peeps lesser machines will still be sluggish at 124fps relative in comparison to my hardware. Oh, and the brk_mod... You can reduce the polys another 50% here, cuz the detail isnt much lost due to the genmerality of the applied textures. It will still appear to retain most of its characteristics.

There are 11 left. Seems I lied to you... Let me talk to Azel...

Hey Azel. You mind if wulf111 makes these Hellions of yours game friendly? The mesh will change the textures a tad, but as I was saying, your textures are so generally applied, it still looks natural even afterwards. And wulf did a good job too. I'm critical of details. Got to be when you're a server admin. So. This ok with you? Oh, and btw, do you have any smaller scale PF or FTR type craft planned or unreleased? As it stands, I'm gonna have to pair a non-Hellion with them to make the dyna package complete.

.

[Dizzy]

Have they been tested in game. Cause sometimes reducing polies cretes holes or warps in the mesh, that show up in game.

If that is the case, there is another model program that checks for holes and plugs them. I read where this is specifically discussed here in this forum, buit dunno which thread.

[wulf111]

max will also cap holes if needed i didnt really notice any in the models i converted

[Dizzy]

Azel gave the go. So wulf, can you take care of the cylinder poly excess? Can the modeling program focus on an area or is it all parts inclusive?

And what happens if you run the model thru the poly reduce 2x? Will it screw it up? I'd like to see it reduced just a bit firther.

Tell me when you want the next one.

And nice job btw. Thx for helping. These models will finally get used.

[wulf111]

ok i ran the models through the optimizer again but didnt have much effect only dropped about about 100 polys as for the 4 rear cylinders they are not that many polys, replacing them with standard cylinders (wich would only reduce them about 30 polys each) is an option but i would never be able to get the texturing on them. let me know what you would like me to do.

[markyd]

Modifier Panel > STL Checker...

This will check for any errors in your mesh..... Very handy tool!

Good luck guys!

[wulf111]

that was the first thing i did Markyd then did the correction then optimized

[markyd]

How low u tryin to get it?  ???

[wulf111]

trying to shave another 1000-1500 polys off to get it about 4000 the only thing i can think of is to remake several of the higher poly parts to lower the count down

[markyd]

Yeah that would do it.... or instead of a remake... try selecting the tenticles and detatch them.... the run the poly reduction on the tenticles without effecting the entire model... then reattach.... when you detatch... dont move the tenticle leave it where it is... then whe you re attatch it should look seemless!!!!

[Dizzy]

Thx for helping guys. The problem is in the cylindrical thingees on the back of the model. The tentacles arnt that bad. If we cxan get the models down to 3-4000 polys, thats playable!

Hey markyd, I dig your new sig pic. Didnt like the other.

Wulf, let me know what I can do to help and when you want the next model. I am still working on some wicked textures.

[markyd]

Thanks Diz

[wulf111]

ill work on it some more tonight and let you know

[wulf111]

ill see waht i can do tonight about getting a few more polys off maybe i can shave a few by doing a little welding on verticies ill let you know the progress

[wulf111]

ok got them both (.moddown 2500-3500 range but had to sacrafice a little of the length of the tentcles but was able to keep most of the detail

[Dizzy]

K, send it over. Lets see her. Gave her a haircut eh?

[wulf111]

file sent my friend