Reduce poly/tris count on .ASE model:

[Bikerdude]

So I created a Persian wall, but the poly/tris count is insane, despite making the majority of it out of patches and reducing the tessellation to as low as possible. Before I ask someone to look at this for me, if there any way (other then the can-o-worms that is Blender) that I can use to said amounts.

 

 

The poly/tris count atm is 15/21k, prefabs - mega

 

Just an fyi - I only had 3 instances of this model and a cut down prfab and it caused the the to crash with a malloc error

Edited June 25, 2017 by Bikerdude

[peter_spy]

If you want to do this efficiently, make the pattern on alpha texture. If you want it to cast shadows, maybe use a spot light with that pattern in the material. Even the modern games like DH2 use these on alphas, although they can cast proper shadows without any special tricks.

 

[Bikerdude]

That is one possible route to take, the issue with that is it will be a flat 2D image, there wont be any thickness to it. And also the shadow issue you mentioned..

[peter_spy]

You can use the trick I learned here to get some illusion of depth. It's not perfect, and it will add another transparent layer, but it's still more reasonable than having a full physical model:

 

https://youtu.be/_NmqRTAcBFM?t=8m10s

[Dragofer]

If you want to go the physical model route you can get rid of a lot of verts (currently 21k) by converting to .lwo. Patch-made .ase's have overlapping verts wherever patches meet and at the boundaries between different materials. I've done this for all of my DarkRadiant creations, it saved 4k verts on my stagecoach for example.

 

Procedure is simply:

Import .ase in Blender, 'a' to select all, export .lwo with a check in "remove duplicate verts"

 

The .ase importer I use is from Jedi Academy. Note that .ase's of this size take ages to import.

 

 

If you want a physical shadowcasting model, how does it look with a shadowmesh? Unless your light is straight next to the window you probably wouldn't need a high-detail shadowmesh, as the player wouldn't see much of it.

 

 

Regarding alpha, the Persian window would be well suited for this because it's inside a wall so you don't see it from the side. Even better if you can find a pattern with some thicker slats that you can physically model in, like those in both your and Judith's images.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Dragofer

[Bikerdude]

What version of blender are you using..? and do you have links to the .ASE import and .LWO your using..?

[peter_spy]

You can get rid of the vertices for .ase format too, you just have to weld them, (at least that's how it works in 3dsmax). The format itself doesn't matter, it's how you build models.

 

The more important thing is, even if you go down with tris to, let's say, 5k, it still doesn't make much sense as a secondary decoration model.

[Bikerdude]

I will try and make an image based version of this...

[Arcturus]

I went down to 9656 tris (4828 x2, since it's symmetrical). Here's the file. I used textures/darkmod/wood/panels/rtable2b material from tdm_wood_panels.mtr. It's supposed to use models/darkmod/props/textures/rtable2b texture, but in game it actually uses a different image. Is there a second textures/darkmod/wood/panels/rtable2b material somewhere?

 

[peter_spy]

I can make you one in my spare time, but it will use custom textures/material. The model you posted has dimensions of 88 x 88 x 2, is that what you need?

Edited June 25, 2017 by Judith

[Bikerdude]

• I went down to 9656 tris (4828 x2, since it's symmetrical). Here's the file.
• I used textures/darkmod/wood/panels/rtable2b material from tdm_wood_panels.mtr. It's supposed to use models/darkmod/props/textures/rtable2b texture, but in game it actually uses a different image. Is there a second textures/darkmod/wood/panels/rtable2b material somewhere?

• Your a little star!
• I thought I was using textures/darkmod/wood/boards/wood_brown_walnut02, because both versions of rtable2b are only tillable horizontally.

I can make you one in my spare time, but it will use custom textures/material. The model you posted has dimensions of 88 x 88 x 2, is that what you need?

It was just a hole I was trying to fill at the time.

I will try and make an image based version of this...

I have made a test version of this, alpha dosent seem to be working though -

 

textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_panel
{
	wood
	twosided
    noselfshadow
		
    qer_editorimage	textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable_ed
    diffusemap    	textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable

	{
		blend diffuseMap
		map 		textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable
		alphaTest 0.5
	}

    {
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       gl_dst_color, gl_one
        map         _white
        rgb         0.40 * parm11
    }
    {
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       add
        map         textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable	
        rgb         0.15 * parm11
    }

	// TDM Ambient Method Related 
	{							
		if (global5 == 1)		
		blend add				
		map				textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable	
		scale			1, 1		
		red				global2	
		green			global3	
		blue			global4	
	}		
}

Edited June 25, 2017 by Bikerdude

[HMart]

So I created a Persian wall, but the poly/tris count is insane, despite making the majority of it out of patches and reducing the tessellation to as low as possible. Before I ask someone to look at this for me, if there any way (other then the can-o-worms that is Blender) that I can use to said amounts.

 

Capture.JPG

 

The poly/tris count atm is 15/21k, prefabs - mega

 

Just an fyi - I only had 3 instances of this model and a cut down prfab and it caused the the to crash with a malloc error

 

Bikerdude if you find blender a complex tool perhaps you could try wings3D? Is free like Blender. Is a very simple tool, interface wise i mean and i remember it could export to .lwo, was the first 3D tool I ever used and learned allot from it, I left it for Modo ages ago so i can't say for certain if it will work now or not, but i do have very nice memories of it, so you could try it, no harm on that imo.

 

btw there's no animation on Wings3D just modeling.

[Bikerdude]

Bikerdude if you find blender a complex tool perhaps you could try wings3D?

Don't suppose you know how many W3D units there to a DR/TDM unit..?

 

I imported the model Arcturus made for me so I can tell from that.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Bikerdude

[nbohr1more]

 

• Your a little star!
• I thought I was using textures/darkmod/wood/boards/wood_brown_walnut02, because both versions of rtable2b are only tillable horizontally.

It was just a hole I was trying to fill at the time.

I have made a test version of this, alpha dosent seem to be working though -

 

Capture3.JPG

textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_panel
{
	wood
	twosided
    noselfshadow
		
    qer_editorimage	textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable_ed
    diffusemap    	textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable

	{
		blend diffuseMap
		map 		textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable
		alphaTest 0.5
	}

    {
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       gl_dst_color, gl_one
        map         _white
        rgb         0.40 * parm11
    }
    {
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       add
        map         textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable	
        rgb         0.15 * parm11
    }

	// TDM Ambient Method Related 
	{							
		if (global5 == 1)		
		blend add				
		map				textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable	
		scale			1, 1		
		red				global2	
		green			global3	
		blue			global4	
	}		
}

What does the alpha image of the diffusemap look like?

 

Hmm, also the ambient stage and frob stages need to be alpha tested.

[peter_spy]

AFAIK you don't need anything more than a tga with alpha channel and this in the diffuse stage:

 

{
blend diffusemap
map [path to your texture with alpha here]
alphatest 0.75 // Transparency threshold
}

bumpmap
specularmap
}
// TDM Ambient Method Related, etc.

 

 

Edit: it seems like you have diffuse declared twice in your material, once in a diffusemap shortcut, and then once more with alpha test.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Judith

[HMart]

Don't suppose you know how many W3D units there to a DR/TDM unit..?

 

I imported the model Arcturus made for me so I can tell from that.

 

A wings3D unity is anything you want 1 wu (wings unity) can be 1 meter, 1 inch , 1 Km, 1 mile, etc

 

 

Btw i'm sure you noticed but wings3D has no gizmos for rotation, movement or scale, is all based in keyboard shortcuts and right mouse key context menus, depending on the feature you are the right mouse key will show different tools.

 

I also recommend that to put the camera movement on the preferences to the Maya version based on alt+mouse keys.

 

Also you can't make open models on wings3D (you can but is just a trick), what i mean by open models, is making a hole on a model by deleting faces, you can assign the "hole" material to those faces and they will be hidden on the views and will be ignored at export time, but is not a bad thing imo, is also why wings3D could do things that no other tools could until blender implemented Winged edge (is why wings3D is called that) ability to its modeling tool set has well, it also forces people to be careful with their geometry. I could be wrong (because i've used open models before) but i also think idtech 4 doesn't like open models, specially for collision and shadow meshes, stencil shadows don't like open models either but idtech 4 uses a special type of stencil shadows, so perhaps it doesn't mind them.

Edited June 25, 2017 by HMart

[Bikerdude]

@Judith

 

I copied a knowb working decal tpe texture with alpha thats the same as the one I am trying to create.

textures/darkmod/metal/grate/trans_grating01
{

	metal
    description	"vine_friendly"
	noShadows

	bumpmap			textures/darkmod/metal/grate/gratetrans2_local
	specularmap 	textures/darkmod/metal/grate/gratetrans2_s
	{
		blend diffuseMap
		map textures/darkmod/metal/grate/gratetrans2
		alphaTest 0.5
	}

	{
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       gl_dst_color, gl_one
        map         _white
        rgb         0.40 * parm11
    }
    {
        if ( parm11 > 0 )
        blend       add
        map       textures/darkmod/metal/grate/gratetrans2
        rgb         0.15 * parm11
    }

	// TDM Ambient Method Related
	{
		if (global5 == 1)
		blend add
		map				textures/darkmod/metal/grate/gratetrans2
		scale			1, 1
		red				global2
		green			global3
		blue			global4
	}

}

Edited June 25, 2017 by Bikerdude

[peter_spy]

This one's good, in the example above you had

diffusemap     textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable
{
  blend diffuseMap
  map   textures/darkmod/wood/panels/persian_wall_tileable
  alphaTest 0.5
}

That's diffuse map stage repeated twice. You don't the next two stages either, unless you need this to be frobbed ofc.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Judith

[Bikerdude]

Ok cool, will remove that tomoz and see if it fixes it.

[Dragofer]

What version of blender are you using..? and do you have links to the .ASE import and .LWO your using..?

 

Blender version 2.76b

ASE importer Jedi Academy for Blender 2.76b

LWO importer exporter

 

Still need to mention that when you import a DR .ase each patch gets treated as an own object (='entity'), you need to combine them all into one to work with it.

 

Procedure:

Import .ase

Right-click on any patch to make this the active one

'a' to select all

'Ctrl + j' to join them together

Export .lwo with these settings in the exporter:

• idtech4 compatible
• smoothing enabled
• triangulate the faces
• don't recalculate normals
• remove duplicated verts