big .obj files into 3dsmax

JordanW

So when using zbrush/mudbox/any 3d painting app, my .obj files become massive and take max forever to import them. I was wondering if there was a better .obj importer for max? I tried XSI 5 and it can import the same .obj files much quicker than max because they updated their importer so i'm a little jealous and was wondering if anyone knew of an updated 3dsmax one.

MoP

Yeah, it's a bit of a bitch how long it takes, but Arshlevon posted a sneaky trick a while back if all you're doing is baking normals or using the geometry to model around.

Basically just drop a few subdivisions to a manageable level, and bake a normal or displacement map of the upper levels (since they're usually just fine detail anyway, not major shapes), you can even use ZB-generated UVs for this, then you can bring this mesh into max much faster, apply and bake the normals from that.

arshlevon

yeah works pretty good now that zmapper is out.. also poops trick works pretty good too. create a new layer make sure it is the active layer, and hide that layer.. now import. it loads a bit faster and comes in selected so you can assign a smooth modifier to get rid of the facets . also i find max 9 is very comparable to xsi in polylimits and speed. i brought in a 6 million poly model from zbrush and it took a sec to load but i could rotate the view real time, even in wireframe mode.
i also export chunks of very detailed areas from zbrush and bake those separately then composite the more detailed normals in photoshop. this speeds things up a bit and allows me to single out areas that need high detail in zbrush and delete the rest of the mesh so i can even get another divide or 2 before i run out of memory.

JordanW

thanks, I'll try out max9, I'm currently doing the layer thing and baking normals when I really need to, One thing I've found is that max can also be really picky if the object is say...really small or you have lots of polygons within a small area on a model, dunno why.

KevinCoyle

Is there a way to allocate more memory resources for zbrush to use? I have a 3 million polygon model and when I try and export it as an obj I get insufficent memory errors towards the end.

Or do I need a new system. I have 2 gigs of ram on my current system.

Joshua Stubbles

Get 4GB.
There's a registry hack that you can do, which will let Windows use only 1GB of that memory, and use the rest for applications/games. Earthquake and Per know what it was. I can't remember it. EQ? Per? Care to chime in here?

MoP

Well, ZBrush also has a "Mem" heading in the Preferences menu, you might try editing some of the settings in there, like CompactMem.

fr0gg1e

the zmapper thing would be ace if I was able to use it on a mesh with more than 500 000 polys, however, bringing your high resolution (4 millions polys) in zbrush and launching Zmapper is giving me an error.
When I try to load this same 4 millions poly mesh directly into max, on a layer, displayed as a box, whatever trick you could use, it just crash max...I tried to imports parts of my models and polycrunch them, but then polycrunch is "running out of memory". so i have to manually separate them in max (when it doesnt crash) then polycrunch each of them...
Xnomal works great, but editing the cage is just too painfull.
I really wonder if it's my machine or if it's max related.

spitty

something that helped me when i was running out of ram importing obj's was to get rid of the uvs for the hipoly model. there is a setting in zbrush export panel called txr that will make it so your mesh will export without uvs. this made my obj have a much lower file size.

then in max i also uncheck the texture coordinates box when i import the obj.

Silva_Spoon

Oh how I want a 64bit machine and a 64bit version of max 9

diZzyWalnut

Try to adjust ( fix) the virtual memory of Your PC.
It means the volume initial should be egual to the volume
maximum.

Example :

---

If Your PC 's got 1024 RAM - the volume initial is about 1536
and the volume max is 3072 .
..... well, You have to adjust the volume initial at 3072.






I think that can help for heavy import from ZBRUSH or MUDBOX.
(don't forget "defragment" the hard drive after this change of memory !)