Shnappz Posted February 7, 2015 Report Posted February 7, 2015 Hey All, I've been building a tank on 3ds... it's my first attempt so before you say it, yes i know it sucks (looking at you AircraftKiller) I did a poly count and it says like over 19,000 and i'm not even finished... It appears that the wheels are the perpetrators each containing around 1000 polys... How can i remedy this? 0 Quote
LR01 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Posted February 8, 2015 First, when you create something cylinder like, look at the segements and sides. They should be low. The quickest way to reduce poly count would be something like the modifier optimize. 0 Quote
Guest rackz Posted February 8, 2015 Report Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) wheels are fast made, better remodel them. compare with apb or ren models. make sure the wheels are flat on the ground wheels shouldnt look like this: () they should look more like this; (_) otherwise your wheels will get stuck in ground. my pc broke ill post a picture what i exactly mean when im able to use my pc again. Edited February 8, 2015 by rackz 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 8, 2015 Author Report Posted February 8, 2015 Thanks guys. Yes racks maybe if you can upload a picture that explains what you mean! Cheers! 0 Quote
Synaesthesia Posted February 9, 2015 Report Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) First, when you create something cylinder like, look at the segements and sides. They should be low. The quickest way to reduce poly count would be something like the modifier optimize. These two statements are both incorrect. I'll explain why: 1. Cylindrical objects require a decent amount of polygonal detail to look less like rotating hexagons and more like the object they're meant to resemble. 2. Optimize is a decimation modifier. It's not going to clean up that geometry the way a human would. You'll quite likely get very shitty decimation of the model and it'll look as if someone took a weed whacker to it. You're better off manually removing loops. In Max 2013, click on one edge and hold shift, then click on an adjacent edge to select the loop. CTRL+Backspace to remove it and the vertices attached to it. 2014 and above: double click on an edge loop and CTRL+Backspace to remove it and the vertices attached to it. Shnappz: Here's one of my vehicles that shows you how I lay out my topology. You'll notice that my wheels have far fewer edge loops than yours do. You also need to work from reference material to really get a good feel for the geometry you're building. Edited February 9, 2015 by Aircraftkiller 1 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) Hey AircraftKiller Thanks for the information. Yeah I tried modelling it with less segments and it looked like you said, a rotating hexagon. I'm using 3ds 2008 for this as I'm working with W3D, hopefully you're technique works with this version too... Also, I have been using a reference image, it's just hidden at the moment. The tank I'm making is going to be unique to the universe I'm conjuring so it's not supposed to be an exact replication of a real life tank. Thanks a lot for your help. PS. Nice truck! Edited February 9, 2015 by Shnappz 0 Quote
Einstein Posted February 9, 2015 Report Posted February 9, 2015 the universe I'm conjuring Do tell! 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) the universe I'm conjuring Do tell! well it's set in the not so distant future. Famine, disease & overpopulation are a problem for all major continents now. Countries have combined resources & infrastructure to create mega states. My game is going to be set in the European Megastate "Eurasia". The government are tyrannous and have invested most of the state money into the Eurasian Defence Agency who are arming themselves for an imminent Civil war/Revolution. There are curfews and all human rights charters have been revoked to provide the government forces with more power to exert their will upon the public.The poor are left in ghettos to starve while the rich live well in sectioned parts of the citys. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A small, but well funded group called the United Liberation Front. They are actively building an army and gaining support throughout the poorer areas. My general idea is that the United Liberation Front will resemble a militia (maybe a bit like the GLA off generals but more well equipped) and the Eurasian Defence Agency will look like futuristic-ish storm troppers. Their uniform will be jet black and regular infantry will all wear gasmasks and will generally look pretty menacing. The equipment the ULF will use will be old russian & eastern european design and the EDA will be using futuristic stuff that i make up. That's the general idea... I've not decided 100% on the faction names yet... i may change them to something better. I think i'm going to call that tank the "Predator Medium Tank" EDIT: Hey AircraftKiller, It appears that technique doesnt work in 3DS MAX 8... either that or i'm doing it wrong. Does this technique have a name so i can go search for how to do it in my version? EDIT AGAIN: Yeah... that was because it was an editable mesh not a poly. Ignore moi Edited February 9, 2015 by Shnappz 1 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Posted February 9, 2015 Worked like a charm by the way AircraftKiller, got each wheel down to 300 or so polys! 0 Quote
ChopBam Posted February 9, 2015 Report Posted February 9, 2015 Yes, you can remove edgeloops and their connected vertices in Max 8. I actually don't know if you can use any of the same shortcuts that ACK mentioned, but you can select your edge, hit "loop," Ctrl click on vertex mode to convert your selection to vertices. Go back to edge mode, "remove edges," go back to vertex mode, "remove vertices." 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Posted February 9, 2015 Hey Chop, yeah i did that but i think i left the vertices in. I didn't even think about them! I'll go back and do that now 0 Quote
ChopBam Posted February 9, 2015 Report Posted February 9, 2015 Yeah, if the vertices are still there, the extra triangles are still there, even if the edges aren't showing up in Max. It'll register the polys as n-gons, which aren't ideal and don't reduce detail. 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Posted February 9, 2015 Heh, this method has reduced my poly count from like 19,000 to 7500 (due to the fact there is 16 wheels) Just a few bits of detail to add then, texture-time 0 Quote
danpaul88 Posted February 11, 2015 Report Posted February 11, 2015 7500 is still quite a lot. That truck aircraftkiller posted only has just over 8000 and it's a lot more detailed than the last shot we saw of your model. 0 Quote
Squid Empire Posted February 11, 2015 Report Posted February 11, 2015 My general idea is that the United Liberation Front will resemble a militia (maybe a bit like the GLA off generals but more well equipped) and the Eurasian Defence Agency will look like futuristic-ish storm troppers. Their uniform will be jet black and regular infantry will all wear gasmasks and will generally look pretty menacing. If you need any concepts for this I would be happy to help 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 11, 2015 Author Report Posted February 11, 2015 Hey Dan, I've been working on this since I posted the picture and the body of the tank has a really low count now, the issue is still the wheels tbh... I might just have to remodel them as simple cylinders if it's going to be a massive problem... The detail I'm going to add shouldn't boost the polys up too much... Will 7k-8k polys cause a problem in W3D? My general idea is that the United Liberation Front will resemble a militia (maybe a bit like the GLA off generals but more well equipped) and the Eurasian Defence Agency will look like futuristic-ish storm troppers. Their uniform will be jet black and regular infantry will all wear gasmasks and will generally look pretty menacing. If you need any concepts for this I would be happy to help Squid, I would love you to help with the concept art, can I send you a PM with my base ideas? 0 Quote
Squid Empire Posted February 11, 2015 Report Posted February 11, 2015 Squid, I would love you to help with the concept art, can I send you a PM with my base ideas? Please do 0 Quote
danpaul88 Posted February 11, 2015 Report Posted February 11, 2015 Have you applied the same optimisations to the barrel of your tank as you did to the wheels? Don't forget that is cylindrical too. Perhaps post screenshots of your wheel wireframes as they are now. 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 11, 2015 Author Report Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) Hey Dan, The barrel is optimized and I've remodeled my wheels as cylinders instead of that lathed thing i did. I've now got like 4500 polys including the tracks! Edited February 11, 2015 by Shnappz 0 Quote
danpaul88 Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 It's hard to tell from that shot, but do the edges of the tracks have more polys than the top/bottom? It looks like there are lots of really small polys but the detail level is too low to tell if that's just a rendering artefact You should also pump some more polys into the turret and hull, there are simple modifiers you can do for a quick start at rounding off some of the hard edges which would go a long way to improving the overall look of the tank, right now it has a lot of sharp corners, especially around the back of the turret. 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 12, 2015 Author Report Posted February 12, 2015 Hello Dan, It was lots of small polys, i've actually changed the treads since and they now have a lot less. What modifiers would you reccomend for getting rid of those edges of the turret? Thanks for the advice! 0 Quote
danpaul88 Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 I've not done any modelling in a long time but you should be able to select the edges you want to soften and use the Chamfer tool to create a rounded edge. Don't go overboard, look at the corners of the bonnet on the truck aircraftkiller posted for some examples. Armour is naturally going to have slightly sharp edges so don't make yours quite as rounded as those. You could also experiement with things like the smooth modifier to relax some of the hard edges, but it's usually better to do these things by hand rather than applying mesh-wide modifiers. Others who are better at modelling may be able to provide some better suggestions. 0 Quote
Shnappz Posted February 12, 2015 Author Report Posted February 12, 2015 Yeah i'll try and chamfer them a bit, i probably won't post another WIP SS until it's textured. Cheers again! Also who changed my avatar thing to "I Lern Fast" LOL 0 Quote
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