Best software for reducing polys ??

I need to know what is the best software for reducing the geometry in models. Someone recently mentioned 3d PhotoBrower with Polygon Cruncher I already know about Okino Polytrans, but is there any other software that can do this or am I going to have to rely on the Optimize modifier in 3ds Max.

 

I tried a bunch of different apps and none of them produced a "game ready" model. It depends on how much you want to reduce the mesh. If your mesh is 100,000+ polys and you want to reduce it to 5,000 or less you're likely to be disappointed. Other apps that have a poly reduction feature and worth trying:

Blender
Cinema4D
Modo

Blender's poly reduction is ok for small reductions, but I thought Cinema4D and Modo did a better job. I still had to do a lot of manual clean up, but depending on how much you want to reduce the mesh, they might be good enough. Also, don't be afraid to play with the reduction settings. Big improvements can me made by tweaking things.

 

Zbrush has a great plugin for reducing polycount. It is called "Decimation Master".

 

I dont use ZBrush, but I do have Cinema 4d Modo so I will try with those.

 

Maybe something to look at!

http://www.atangeo.com/

Free version " It is fully functional but works with small meshes only.
The limits for a single mesh are 15000 triangles and 10000 vertices.

If your entire model is large but has many small independent meshes or layers, you can still use Balancer Lite. Before loading your model, enable Balancer to split the model into independent meshes in Tools | Options | Importers | Wavefront .obj.

Balancer Lite can be used for non-commercial purposes in non-business, non-commercial environment only.
Commercially, 30 days evaluation period applies."

 

I use 3dsmax for modeling and in the past played with oiky reduction tools there have been at least half a dozen but none of them are intelligent enough to be really worth while except maybe for very distant LOD.

3Dsmax 2010 got a bunch of new poly modeling tools which are awesome for reducing polycounts automatically. You can remove loops with the click of a button without losing topology, or remove two loops and add a single one in the middle tweaking its curvature with a slider. As well as redirecting loops to follow form better so you can remove other geometry.

It does take a little time, but its dead easy and produces much better results than any automated tools I've seen.

 

Oh yes, I just recently found out about the new features in Max 2010 I'm upgrading from 2009. In addition to new poly tools there is a new modifier called Quadify which automatically converts triangles to quads.

 

Vizup or the DirectX tools in Milkshape.

 

Ah yeah, quadrify worked out really well recently when I had to reduce a 300,000 tri F18 to 5000 for a contract job. Thats where I got to speed with the new max poly loop manipulation tools.

Nice thing is that it tried and mostly succeeded in keeping the UV's too, though you do have to check occasionally if too many edges meet at the ends of triangle strips.

 

I haven't used this, but it may be something to look at. http://www.topogun.com/

 

After using Max 2009 now 2010 I am starting to really like Max Autodesk software. I prefer a modeling app that has a reduction tool included instead of standalone software. I hate having to import export everything, it wastes so much time I would have to do it for EVERY OBJECT !!

 

Spotted this thread and I had an 11K poly model I needed to reduce to around 4K. C4D's poly reduction deformer has sucked since version 7.2 and kills the UV's even if you lock them. So I checked at ZBrush and they finally released Decimation Master for OS X. Let me say..that sucker works a charm. I made sure I had Symmetry on and then preprocessed the mesh where it appears to make many in between states and then hit Decimate Current set to just under 4K. Darned if I ain't got a mesh with 3088 points that looks the same as my original as far as surface topology is concerned. If you need alot of poly reduction then this is the tool. Makes great normal maps too from the hi res tool to apply to the low poly model using Parallax Shaders in Unity.

Best
Bluster T

 

Can you get a demo of Decimation Master?

I found a demo of ZBrush, but couldn't add the DM.

 

Uhmmm....as far as I know you can not reduce the independent meshes one by one
If so it would be of great help
You may want an higher level of detail for the "head" and a lower one for the "feet"

But Balance , so far , does not supply such important feature

 

Meshlab also does a good job, and is free/open source.

 

I do all my modelling in milkshape and havent neaded anything like this.

But you could try this one.


http://www.thegamecreators.com/?f=action3d
50 us dollars.

Action3D Reducer is designed to reduce big models and was tested with 3D objects containing up to 300,000 triangles.

To reduce a 3D object, Action3D Reducer creates a progressive mesh. You can then reduce or increase the number of triangles and vertices displayed by the progressive mesh in real-time using a slider control until you find the correct balance.

 

Is it possible to select sub-meshes to apply different reduction rate ?
For example just 50 % reduction for the front face , 30 % for the body and 10 % for the feet

Does anybody know an application supporting this feature ?

 

3dsmax does, you can just select a bunch of faces and have max optimize those seperately to the rest of the model. These days I prefer to work in quads and use the nice loop removal and adjustment tools to optimize quickly by hand.

 

I havent tested it my self so i recomend that you download the trial version and tryes it?

 

modo mesh reduction tool works VERY well, try that if you have modo

 

I think a lot of this depends on what your needs are. I think in many cases, you're going to end up with a much better result if you manually retopologize your high-res model rather than send it through an algorithm to do the optimization automatically. Those mesh reduction tools don't have a way to know what parts of your model are more important and need specific attention to maintain correct meshflow(and not just density), if some parts are going to get unsightly shading errors, if it's going to be able to deform in animation correctly, etc. If you just need to get some absurdly high-poly CAD data in a realtime app in a few hours, go for it, but you may not always be pleased with the results.

 

Exactly , that's why I wonder whether there is a poly reducer which allow to select sub meshes of the model

 

Try polygon cruncher . It is gaming industry standard

 

With Atangeo Balancer 1.2 you can control face densities for selective reduction rate of
different groups/meshes/sub-meshes. For example, you can set
density of 5 to the head group of your model, to increase the density
of the head vertices roughly 5 times.
See this user guide page here: http://www.atangeo.com/guide/density

Enjoy

 

Polygon Cruncher.

NEVER USE POLYTRANS. I got screwed by this company when I purchased their product. I lost my money, just avoid Okino if you do not want to have the same awful experience with the author.

 

I have used simplygon, its amazing! expensive though.

 

It appears that Nikko is hell bent to ruin my squeaky clean, professional engineering company name. He has so much time on his hands that every forum thread is filled with his hate comments.

Since I do not wish to repeat my proper response to Nikko's continued unwarranted comments, I'll have everyone read my proper response here. Nikko needs to stop being my one and only worst nightware user, which all started with him in 2009 on this Unity forum.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/64...scaling-to-0.01-an-option?p=617572#post617572

 

Anyone know a polygon cruncher for Mac?
Other than Meshlab which is doing weird stuff no matter what settings I try.
Cheap or free for preference.
Thanks

 

Try our Mantis LOD Editor please! Simplify your 3d model while remaining all animation/rigs, only $50, super fast on Mac.

 

I've been using Polygon Cruncher for years now. It works really well for models of any construction (ie. non-quads). I've been super happy with the flexibility of it as it gives you more controls than the ones that come with the standard MRM / Pro Optimizer found in 3dsMax 2012+

 

+1 for Polygon Cruncher
I use it also for many years inside Lightwave and it have many features like preserve the uv boundarys.
Also i use other tools too, for some other features, Polygon Cruncher never disapoint me since i started to know how i have to use it, wich also do not take much time.

 

Thank you, Polygon Cruncher does look interesting and it seems there IS a stand alone version after all.
I will check it out.

 

Trial both 'Mantis LOD Editor' and 'Polygon Cruncher' before you making decision.

 

Thank you mesh online, I hadn't found Mantis LOD Editor, I will check it out!
Cheers.

 

Simplygon cloud recently became free for personal use. There are monthly usage limits but they seem quite generous as far as I can tell. Had a quick play and am impressed so far.

 

I've not used it personally, but 'Contours' for blender looks really good - Stroke based retopology, this demo vid shows how quick it is:

 

Hi All,

After reading this thread a few months ago I tried the various LOD tools that had demos available and I settled on Mantis.

Mantis has a free version and I really like the real time preview feature and, imho, the quality of the LODs it generates has been good. I've been waiting for it to go on sale again to buy the full version.

I haven't been able to try Cruncher because there was no demo available. Today, Cruncher is on sale.

The reviews for Cruncher look good and the demo video shows that it has everything I need.

Does anyone have any opinions on Mantis vs Cruncher?

The sale price for Cruncher is still more than the regular price for Mantis. Is it a better tool or just priced differently?

 

Mantis LOD Editor - Professional Edition has appeared in Asset Store.

In this edition, we have brought the world's first commercial progressive mesh technology to Unity.

What is progressive mesh? In short, you no longer have to make LOD manually, and your game will run more smoothly and has less pop up effect.

Take a preview: http://www.mesh-online.net/ProgressiveMeshDemo.html

Learn more about progressive mesh technology: http://www.mesh-online.net/faq.html

 

Wow, this looks amazing.

 

I'll have to check that out. I really like ZRemesher in ZBrush as it lets you combine painting densities where you want to retain mesh density as well as using ZRemesher Guides to instruct it how to construct your edge loops which is great if you want a good quality model that is closer to or at animation ready topology.

I'll have to check out Mantis as well. Can't install Web Player at work so I'll need to check it when I get home.

 

Personally I'm still a fan of Topogun but unfortunately the program updates are very very slow and rare. Apparently Topogun 3 is in the works but no word on when it will come.

It's not a problem as long as the software works but it should be considered that it's basically only one guy developing it.

 

Another vote for ZBrush.