How can i reduce FBX file size with minimum damage to my 3D model?

Ranza34

Hello! I have a 3D model of game character with around 200000 poly, My FBX file size is almost 70MB which is far too much for my app, I need the file to be maximum 8MB.
I tried to reduce the polygons with the "Reduce polygons" modifier but the model is turning really messed up. 
My model is a character that will eventually need to be animate too and the face need to be in good shape so that people will recognize the person.
Any suggestion?

Im using Cinema 4D but also have 3DSMAX.

Obscura

  

thomasp

On top of cutting down on model complexity you could also experiment with passing your FBX through Blender. For me it always seems to cut FBX file sizes in half compared to what I receive as exports from other packages like Max. Not sure what it's leaving out to accomplish that but I've not suffered any knock on effects from that so far.

Mark Dygert

Delete history, freeze transforms, uncheck options in the FBX file like lights, cameras and animation, uncheck embed media.

But at the end of the day, there is only so much you can do. When you have a certain number of verts in a scene it will cost a certain amount of data to record each position and whatever else it is doing.

poopipe

thomasp said:

On top of cutting down on model complexity you could also experiment with passing your FBX through Blender. For me it always seems to cut FBX file sizes in half compared to what I receive as exports from other packages like Max. Not sure what it's leaving out to accomplish that but I've not suffered any knock on effects from that so far.

The same data can be stored in quite a variety of ways in fbx - smoothing groups and  hard/soft edges are represented differently for example. 
You can also leave pretty much anything out as it's intended as a full scene description rather than a specific . 
Im surprised it makes that much of a difference tbh but it's entirely plausible.


Nothing on earth is going to make a 200k model into a tiny file though.   I suggest the OP puts some time into optimisation cos unless it looks like the cinematic Lod for Aloy or Nathan Drake  there's probably room for quite a lot of savings. 

musashidan

Ranza34 said:

Hello! I have a 3D model of game character with around 200000 poly

I tried to reduce the polygons with the "Reduce polygons" modifier but the model is turning really messed up. 

My model is a character that will eventually need to be animate

These 3 statements are a recipe for disaster. 200K for a real-time character you intend to rig/skin/animate, and your pipeline/workflow currently involves decimating the topology into polysoup? Maybe start by rigging/skinning a low-poly flour sack or 2-legged ball character. Skinning a 200K character is no simple task even for a seasoned professional.

I advise taking a step back and being realistic with your goals. Start with a 10K(or even less) character and take that through the pipeline. In the early stages of learning it's a bad idea to delude and frustrate yourself with such a difficult challenge when you clearly don't understand what it is you're trying to do.

thomasp

poopipe said:

The same data can be stored in quite a variety of ways in fbx - smoothing groups and  hard/soft edges are represented differently for example. 
You can also leave pretty much anything out as it's intended as a full scene description rather than a specific . 
Im surprised it makes that much of a difference tbh but it's entirely plausible.

I just checked and it's an even greater difference here. Static geometry typical for characters, UV's, custom vertex normals, materials without explicit texture assignments and the files shrink to something like 40 % of the original export. Not too shabby.

But definitely it's not going to make the difference in this case all on it's own. If filesize is an important criterium however then it may mean a lot less polygon reduction is needed.