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Post by orangemittens on Mar 23, 2015 15:37:20 GMT -5
Introduction
This tutorial will show you how to use Blender's Decimate feature to reduce poly count in your mesh. It will not show you how to create or map the mesh. Although this tutorial uses an object as the example Blender's decimate feature works the same way on any mesh whether it's an object or a CAS item.
What you will need
Sims 4 Studio Blender 2.70
Instructions
1. Open your mesh in Blender and right mouse click to select it. 2. Click the Object Modifiers tab (looks like a small wrench). 3. Click Add Modifier.
4. Choose Decimate from the modifiers menu.
5. Lower the ratio by sliding your mouse to the left in this box. Alternatively you can enter the ratio you want. You will notice the face count and the Verts | Face counts going down as you reduce the ratio. You will also notice that your mesh begins to become deformed the further down you take the number.
***Note: the second highest LOD is seen at a fairly close distance by people with their graphics settings set low so don't reduce the poly so much that the mesh is really deformed for that LOD. Use EA's .package set up as your guide.***
6. Once the count is lowered to your satisfaction click the Apply button. This must be done in Object Mode. If you don't click the Apply button the change you made will not take effect.
7. If your object has more than one mesh repeat these steps for the other mesh. You can even reduce the poly count of the shadow plane a small amount if it has many vertices in it. Don't forget to click the Apply button.
8. Click File and Save As. Name the new .blend something to set it apart from your high LOD mesh.
9. Back in Studio set the LOD menu to LOD 1 (Medium) and click the Import Mesh button.
Your reduced poly mesh will show up and the counts for Vertices and Faces will be listed below the Import Mesh button. Note that there will be a difference between the numbers here and the numbers shown in Blender. The numbers shown here accurately show the poly count as it will be in the game. If the poly count is still too high you can repeat the decimate process until you end up with a number that you want.
After finishing the medium LOD return to Blender and decimate again for the lower LOD(s). Once your lower LODs are finished you can use these decimated meshes as the base for your lower LOD shadow meshes.
If you have questions about this tutorial please post them in the thread. |
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Post by ajOya on Mar 25, 2015 23:07:35 GMT -5
I JUST ran into trying to lower a poly count on a tiny clutter object. This is fantastic. All these great tutorials and only two pair of eyeballs  . THANK YOU! *BOOKMARKS* |
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Post by Moon on May 3, 2015 12:57:18 GMT -5
What does this means "Use EA's .package set up as your guide." ? where can I find this guide please?
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Post by SimtoWreck on May 3, 2015 15:10:23 GMT -5
What is meant is to use EA's meshes as a reference. so if you're working with a couch, you would want to use The original EAxis couch as a reference guide for how to work with the mesh in Blender.
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Post by orangemittens on May 3, 2015 15:42:23 GMT -5
You should try to approximate the appearance EA has for their lower LOD meshes. Most EA objects have a decent looking medium LOD mesh and you should not decimate yours to the point where it starts to have a negative impact on the mesh.
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Post by -X- on May 4, 2015 5:53:11 GMT -5
i usually only lower the model as low as possible once than just import it into the other lods. i'm lazy  |
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Post by Moon on May 6, 2015 8:23:33 GMT -5
@DemonWolf and @orangemittens thank you! My conversions usually end up with a significant lower polycount so I guess I shouldn't worry much then
@x that's what I usually do too, specially because like I said my conversions usually have low poly count but I was worried about it because I've seen many CC that lose so much quality when we zoom out just a little bit
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2015 10:50:40 GMT -5
Is there a rough guide to how much percentage the cont is between LODs? Like is there a set amount for all objects/clothing say like 25% down for each LOD? My eyesight is not great so its hard for me to judge how much to do each LOD.
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Post by orangemittens on May 6, 2015 11:02:26 GMT -5
There is some amount of variety in the EA items I've seen so there doesn't appear to be any general rule. I think it's reasonable to stay withing a couple hundred polys of whatever it is you're replacing. In cases where my LOD 0 has fewer polys than the EA LOD 1 I don't decimate it at all. Of course there are going to be a few special items that may exceed EA's poly count by quite a bit more than a couple 100 polys. If the item is only likely to be used once per lot or so I think that is also fine...and, as we know, if it's hair or clothes, many downloaders don't mind if the poly is quite high if the item is exactly what they're looking for.
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Post by funboysims on Aug 23, 2015 1:06:15 GMT -5
This was a while ago, but does this apply to hair too?
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Post by orangemittens on Sept 5, 2015 9:45:52 GMT -5
Yes.
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