Optimizing Models
polycounter lvl 11
I want to learn how to optimize my models. I've always just looked at other good models and grabbed techniques by just looking at other peoples models. But I think I need to ask direct help, so here is my gun that I want to optimize. Right now I'm sitting at about 3100 poly's, and 6200 tris.
And the wire-frames:
And the wire-frames:
Replies
EG. all the edge loops on flat surfaces can and should go, it's ok to have a few edges meeting in the same vertex. Those parallel edges in the front part of the gun should go.
And there are many parts which could be done with the help of a normal map.
Edit:
Whoops didn't refresh, somebody beat me to it :P. Oh well the more the merrier right?
Looking back over it, I would have made slightly different decisions but I'm not going to redraw it, this should get the point across.
EDIT: HAHAHA I should have refreshed too... oh well.
if this supposed to be a first person weapon from a game it'll need a bunch of moving parts for animation. Currently it's not setup right. The slide is modeled into the main body and the hammer will have to go into a slot in the back. You'd also need a hole where the ejection port is and the safety will have to move
here's a video that shows how pistols like this move
http://youtu.be/pz6t64_0F8E
article on similar pistol here:
http://largrizzlyparts.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-model-1911-works.html
Very very useful info, thanks!
The slide is modeled as a separate piece.
Now this is a first person model, so are you sure I should get rid of the rivets on the slide?
it feels like I couldn't really achieve a realistic look if I lost those. (just look at the render at the top for ref, and I've got more renders if you want)
Grumble grumble... do not randomly detatch low-poly bits that are solid in the high, like the trigger guard and rails... Just = seams.
You're right about the rails, he could probably keep those as one solid chunk and collapse the loops like gsokol pointed out. Detaching them wouldn't really save that many polys.
You don't want more than 4 sides though.
Any engine will break down all of your geometry into triangles. Quads triangulate in a predictable manner, since...well a quad is 2 triangles butted up together. Whenever you have more than 4 sides though, then you leave it up to the engine to guess how to cut it into triangles. You typically don't want to leave that up to a computah, because it can mess up and cause issues...so want to kinda control that yourself. Some engines may not even accept models with more than 4 sided polygons, I know that X-normal throws a shit fit if you try to.
I lean pretty heavily toward something like this, where everything is joined together.
Maybe even combining the point in the center like the image below, you could even combine that point to one on either side. But it will create some long thin tris.
Keeping it all once piece, will allow you to create some nice soft bevels on the high poly around things like the upper fins and avoid seams like EQ pointed out earlier. Those bevels in addition so a slight slope, will help when the normal map is captured.
If you're going to float due to poly count issues or because of the view angle the seams won't matter, then you can do something like this.
Which will create minor issues around the base of each floating part but will avoid long thin triangles which can be problematic when they appear to be coplanar and will save a few more tris. However its not saving that many tris and the seams it might create can be pretty crappy. Some test bakes might be in order to work out which will work best.
One other thing to keep in mind is if this is a First Person View weapon? Then you need to keep in mind what the silhouette looks like from that view. You can also take this into consideration when plotting out UV seams and what should be optimized.
Well very specifically here, in your paintover there are also verts connecting the shapes. So its just a bit nonsensical to detach that area. What benefits does it give?
As more general advice, randomly detaching stuff isn't a good idea. With a proper baked workflow, hard edges/sgs shouldn't show up as seams in the end result either.
I tend to only use separate mesh chunks when:
A. A part needs to animate
B. A part needs to be detached(silencer, scope etc)
C. Two parts are going to give you intersecting problems if not detached/exploded or you're creating acute angles that will result in the cage folding over itself.
Otherwise its good to keep stuff merged and solid as it:
A. Doesn't make that much different on your triangle count
B. Creates less seams - you get more of a seamless highpoly bake
C. Results in less wasted uv space: IE: excessively interesecting meshes to save a few tris will end up with a lot of occluded UV space, UV space is generally at more of a premium than triangles.
The different colors, are different pieces of geometry (floating). I made the slide, and the main body 2 pieces on purpose so that I could animate it later.
I totally agree with all of those points.
The only reason I was suggesting to detach the trigger guard was that the seams would be in a spot commonly covered and more than likely obscured from view. The polys where the guard attaches to the barrel will probably never be seen. The break along the handle landed on a pretty hard edge which, if you're going to have a seam it might be a good spot. Of course if it doesn't work out you can join it all together again. It would be something I would test, if it worked great, if not change it and move on.
I was thinking detach the trigger, that just makes mechanical sense, then thought maybe you could get away with detaching the trigger guard also? If the specs for the weapon are generous enough leave it as joined, if not this could be a good spot to optimize given its low visibility.
This is probably ideal, if the specs support it, which is a bit of a wild card and pretty specific to the weapon, the game and the hardware it will run on.
I would keep the center seam on the trigger and trigger guard so they can be mirrored.
In that case:
Here is the last challenge, those n-gons in the blue circles.
I decided to do this to the slide.
Also I think you'll need to break off the inner part of the ejection port because I'm pretty sure that animates separately.
New:
=:D