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lisa · 19th January 2010, 07:49 PM

Polygon Cruncher does a slightly better than the reducer built into AC3D because it's more aware of edge boundaries, but IMHO none of the polygon reducers on the market really do that great a job. Most are ok for going from 500,000 polys to 100,000 polys, but they are all terrible once you start getting into the 1000-2500 poly and below range... even worse when the model is animated and the joint structure matters.

The best tools I've found for building LODs are the variety of re-topology tools that are available. Try looking at something like TopoGun, which is a stand-alone app for re-topologizing models. Some of the sculpting programs, like ZBrush, also have retopology tools built-in.

The results of retopo versus reducing is an *order of magnitude* improvement in visual quality, and the time investment is nominal with practice.

EDIT: --In a pinch, you can also lock the model in AC3D and trace over it.

19th January 2010, 07:49 PM	#2
lisa Senior Member Professional user Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 917	Re: Question re: Polygon Cruncher Polygon Cruncher does a slightly better than the reducer built into AC3D because it's more aware of edge boundaries, but IMHO none of the polygon reducers on the market really do that great a job. Most are ok for going from 500,000 polys to 100,000 polys, but they are all terrible once you start getting into the 1000-2500 poly and below range... even worse when the model is animated and the joint structure matters. The best tools I've found for building LODs are the variety of re-topology tools that are available. Try looking at something like TopoGun, which is a stand-alone app for re-topologizing models. Some of the sculpting programs, like ZBrush, also have retopology tools built-in. The results of retopo versus reducing is an order of magnitude improvement in visual quality, and the time investment is nominal with practice. EDIT: --In a pinch, you can also lock the model in AC3D and trace over it.