Keeping the poly count low

[Scratchlight]

Does anybody have any tips on how to keep the poly count down in GMAX?
I've just checked the count on my current project and it's come up to 32117, which I don't think is good
Thanks, Scratchlight

[DavidBrown]

Check anything curved. One single round object, however small, can have tens of thousands of polys in it if you have the settings too high. The trick is to massively lower the detail of any curve without it looking too much like just a series of straight lines - not an easy skill. One thing might be, if possible, to replace some 3D round objects with planes? That will help a lot, but is something that I haven't fully got my head around either. Mind, it has been quite some time since I last used GMax.

[clam1952]

Reduce anything that has curves to the minimum you can get away with then smooth it. Done correctly a three or four sided tube can look like a round one.
Loose anything you can't see, join overlapping vertices by welding them and goes without saying use lod. Each lod reduction needs to be at least 20% fewer polys down to under 500 for the last one if possible! Use alpha masking for meshes grills etc and or normal mapping rather than actual 3d.

[Scratchlight]

Okay thanks for the tips! On a separate project I have managed the make just the front end/cab 1082 polygons, is that somewhat ideal?

[mckinnell]

Just found this entry try this, it works very well, first, select all of model, next click Convert to editable mesh, then follow in top menu bar the following, Modifiers......Mesh Editing.......Pro Optimiser......see the Optimization Level menu, click Calculate,click keep textures, then reduce Vertex amount from 100% to say by 50% less and you should see your model mesh start to deform as the LOD is reduced down in size, save as an .im file and continue as you will; save this .im file as what ever your model is called .gmax, BUT at the end of the models name, say, some thing like lo poly then the .gmax, or, you will end up over copying the main .gmax file of the model you are creating; if this is of any help that is great, if you want to e mail me for more info then please do so, i use 3ds max 2012, but, i believe the tools are more or less the very same, other wise, i might be able to offer you an alternative over all................

Very best regards and wishes............................Tom.....