METHODS OF 3D MODEL OPTIMIZATION IN THE GAME INDUSTRY

Together with our lead hard surface artist prepared for you a short selection of methods for model optimization. We wish you a pleasant - and useful - reading! And we're waiting for a like in return, of course ;)

So, at the moment there are many ways to optimize models, and in some cases technologies allow us to get away from trimming extra tris to work on object shapes. However, there are a few main methods you can use to bring your model's mesh to the desired polycount.?

Hidden geometry

Always check your model for hidden faces, which will not be visible at any camera angle, and faces that are left inside the mesh.

This mistake is very common with aspiring artists who forget to clean their model after many actions with an object. Such places can have quite a large number of triangles that will never see the light of the game sun :) It is important to take into account the mechanism of the object, its moving parts and whether a particular area will be shown during animation. And if the answer to these points is no, you can safely remove unnecessary faces.

Geometry that does not affect the shape

Always check if the geometry affects the shape of the object or if it can be optimized.

Often such geometry is left because of mirrors and when optimizing the HP model. The mesh in this case will be overloaded with unnecessary edges, which in some places can increase the number of tris by a factor of two or more. It is especially important to keep an eye on planar surfaces, since the extra topology on them does not affect the shape of the object in any way, but only increases the total number of triangles. Triangulation of circles to a point in the center (for example, using Poke in Blender) will add a few tris, and if the number of such elements on the mesh is duplicated many times, the extra tris increases many times. Such geometry can be quickly cleaned in different ways, one of the most convenient is Limited Dissolve in Blender.

In some cases the presence of such geometry may be acceptable, for example, if you need to make overlaps or give an additional chamfer on the planar surface to maintain shading. Then you need to take into account the project's pipeline and specifications.

Geometry expansion

Geometry expansion is a great way to save a huge amount of polygons without losing out on shape or shading.

Check the model for places that can be expanded, and if there is nothing blocking it, go ahead and expand. However, it is important to keep in mind the bakes and take into account difficult transitions and piercing. Some places can be stitched for a better bake bevel and returned afterward, and somewhere the stitched geometry will work better.

Optimizing cylinders and roundings

Always keep in mind the size of the cylinders: increase the number of sections on more visible places and decrease the number of sections on less visible places.

It is important to remember the main rule - LP geometry should not be as visible as possible. Keep an eye on rounding in places that are closest to the player's eye, and reduce it where it is not visible.

Optimizing a low-visibility mesh

Very often there are places on the model that will be visible to the player very rarely, or that are used to simulate some kind of interior space. In this case it is possible - and even necessary - to reduce the amount of geometry in these areas.

Cleanup

Double edges, vertexes flying in space, n-gons, inverted normals - we need to get rid of all this, and our main helper will be the cleanup. It doesn't matter if you use the built-in Maya cleanup or the custom MACHIN3Tools cleanup in Blender, the main point of this action is to clean your mesh from unnecessary trash.

Extreme optimization techniques

Sometimes a project requires you to do the impossible. For example, you need to fit a huge amount of geometry into a given polycount. But it would seem that you have already done everything you can: removed hidden geometry, adjusted cylinders, cleaned the mesh... And even the cleanup didn't give you the expected polycount! Then the collapse method can come to your rescue.

In this method, the bottom of a cubic or cylindrical geometry goes to the maximum possible distance deep into the model and collapses: on a couple of edges, through one or even to a point. The main thing in this action is to keep the shape of the original object, while reducing the number of polygons. It is important to remember that the distance to which the collapse is taken away must be sufficient to maintain the shape.

This method can help to get rid of a huge amount of geometry, but carries additional manipulations at further stages. So, the bottom part of the element is trimmed, UV and Bake take place without collapse - and only after that it is restored.

We hope the material was useful to you ;) And if you haven't given it a like yet, you still have a chance to fix it!