Maya LT, using "reduce" feature on already rigged+animated model.

mlfarrell

So I've done this, (reduce by 50%) and the result looks okay.  But maya simply will not apply the damn "attribute" permanently.  I want to permanently reduce the poly count.  If I leave it as an attribute and then go to the game exporter to go to FBX, the resulting file+animation is completely broken.

How can I do this?  Can I even do this?

Scruples

Have the reduced version and original in the same scene, add the joints to the new mesh and copy skin weights from the original.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MayaLT/files/GUID-7D895BB0-1522-4388-96E0-4245127F90AB-htm.html

oglu

what about simplygon... they have announced a free version...

mlfarrell

Scruples said:

Have the reduced version and original in the same scene, add the joints to the new mesh and copy skin weights from the original.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MayaLT/files/GUID-7D895BB0-1522-4388-96E0-4245127F90AB-htm.html

That's what I don't understand.  The documentation talks about a "keep original" as well, I see no option for that in 2017 at all.  It just adds the reduce as some kind of attribute that never is directly applied to the mesh.  I'm weak with maya, I don't know how to addd joints or anything, I imported everything from a DAE and I'm trying to simply reduce the polycounts for the animation and re-export. 

I should add that WITHIN maya the model animates properly.  But it is very slow and recomputes the reduce at every frame.  It doesn't export properly to FBX.

Scruples

Are you aware of the option boxes?



I should also point out that I wouldn't reduce the model this way, better to delete and collapse edges, edge rings until the polycount is low enough, just be careful around UV edges.

mlfarrell

I understand.  The result is visually satisfying enough to me since I'm reducing <= 50% and the initial polycount is quite high. I discovered the box not long ago, thanks (Man, Maya could stand to be a bit more intuitive if I'm honest)

So when I keep original, I end up with another model that still has the blasted "polyreduce" attribute on it instead of ACTUALLY reducing the polygons permanently.  This is what breaks my export.  Again, is there any way at all that maya can just bake this attribute INTO the mesh so that I can never tweak it or see it again?

mlfarrell

You know what.  Screw this, screw maya.  I'm gonna write my own damn mesh decimation algorithm in C++.