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Old 10th January 2006, 12:18 AM   #1
Merrie
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Default Face or Poly Count and Low Poly Question

Is there a way to tell how many faces, the poly count in a model? And is it fairly easy to keep the count low for 3D games?

Thanks for your help.
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Old 10th January 2006, 01:27 AM   #2
Dennis
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Absolutely. There's a "Model info" feature under the Tools menu that shows all objects and has summary info at the bottom showing surface/vertex counts. You can also "select all" and go into surface/vertex mode to see the number of surfaces/vertices in the document.

As far as keeping poly counts low, that depends on how you model. Modeling good looking, low poly models can take some skill, regardless of the tool you use. There is an "Object -> Reduce" function to reduce the detail/poly counts, but it's generally best to model it low-poly in the first place if possible.

Hope that helps.

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Old 10th January 2006, 12:21 PM   #3
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Hi Merrie,

Dennis is right ... get in the habit and a way of thinking in low polygons when you create.

When I started creating for VRML I had to always be concerned with polygon count (2mb video cards with no acceleration!!). So I got into the habit ;-)

There are some things that you should always be thinking about.

For example will the surface be seen?

If you are making a temple with perhaps twenty columns ... if they sit on a floor the base underside will never be seen ... so you don't need it. Delete it. That underside will proably show up as *1* surface in AC3D but remember it is made up of triangles (which in vrml each count as seperate polygons). If column tops fit against a roof or some other piece of geometry ... do you need a top? And twenty columns suddenly have a lot of triangles that can be removed ;-) Same thing with doors and crates ... bottom probably is never seen

Another example .... Is it a solid object? If it is, can you make it single sided surfaces .... does your game program require drawing interior surfaces that won't be seen?? If not ... set surfaces to 1 side.

Another example ... Is the object you are creating going to be inspected closely ... or just part of the ambience? You can often save polygons if it is something that will be quickly walked by ... as opposed to something closely inspected and which needs detail. Can you use a texture to give a 3d look as opposed to creating geometry detail (example wood panelling, doors crates)??

As for polygon reduction programs ... be careful. A lot of the low end software will destroy texture mapping ... you will have to remap it to keep textures.


Regards,

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Old 10th January 2006, 01:07 PM   #4
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Question:

If you make your objects one sided whenever possible.... does that actually lower the number of polys as reported by Model info? I think it does for animation/drawing purposes in some game systems. If they're left 2-sided it doubles the effective poly count. So, you quickly get in the habit of only leaving objects 2-sided that need to be seen from both sides (like glass panes, cockpit struts and stucture, etc.)
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Old 10th January 2006, 02:00 PM   #5
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Hi Stiglr,

'Counting Polygons' can be a funny business. Ac3d counts 'surfaces as best I can understand. Create an ellipse in Ac3d, set surface to poly ... then check model info ... 1 surface. Now set it to one-sided .... still one surface.

However, that surface in fact will show up as a number of triangles in vrml and setting it to single sided ... halves the number of triangles being drawn in a vrml viewer. It may very well be that different game/sim engines behave differently ... so understanding where your 3d will end up is very important.

The comment about *single-sided* applies to solid objects (closed *and* no transparency). If you looking at lets say a glass cockpit or a wineglass then you probably can not use this trick. On the otherhand .... a set of goggles on pilot's face .... glass probably can be one sided

Understanding where 3d will end up and how it is viewed is important ... always think a little before you create.

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Old 10th January 2006, 02:35 PM   #6
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Thanks, griff. I thought there might be a semantic difference as to what constitutes a poly count for the purposes of "number of them in an object or model" and "number which are drawn in another app against a poly budget."
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Old 11th December 2008, 03:03 PM   #7
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Cool Re: Face or Poly Count and Low Poly Question

i've been trying to figure a way of reducing the polygons on an aircraft model.
It has, get this, objects: 29 surfaces: 1213713 vertices: 637113...

I'm finding that AC3D is having a real tough time dealing with a file this big (appx 70 megs).

I'll give the 'reduce' thingie a try...think it will work?

BTW, I have a new dual processor 64bit machine with 8gigs of RAM.
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Old 12th December 2008, 07:30 PM   #8
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Default Re: Face or Poly Count and Low Poly Question

I do a lot of poly reduction for games, and automated reducers of any kind rarely give really good results. The reducer will certainly reduce the number of faces, but the computer has no way to determine which surfaces are really "important". Most reducers look for minimum angles, which preserves the overall shape, but they tend to lop off a lot of things and artist would have left. i.e. I've seen a lot of reducers cut the ears off the Stanford bunny when severely reduced. A human would have left the ears on the bunny and reduced the legs instead.

If the model wasn't authored low-poly in the first place, I'd recommend using it as a template and tracing over it rather than trying to reduce it. Tracing goes pretty quickly, and the end result will look much better.
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Old 13th December 2008, 03:19 PM   #9
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Default Re: Face or Poly Count and Low Poly Question

I second what Lisa said.
Sometimes you have to use the original model as a template and build from scratch.

I download free models from TurboSquid all the time only to find out the dinky little shack has every detail modeled instead of textured.
Why do I need 1000 polys for a window frame or a door knob?!?!

I've gone through, oh I don't know five hundred or so models, and reduced poly's with AC3D.
First I try a massive reduction, if that pretty much destroys the model I'll do it in steps of 5 to 10 percent and see what happens. If using the entire model causes too much destruction, I will reduce the model piece by piece, in your case, it would be something like propeller, body, wings, definately the wheels, ridiculously high poly window, etc.

Patience is truly a virtue when it comes to poly reduction.
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