I am going to be releasing new stuff for A2 that is left over from A3, but I need help. A lot of these models have a high poly count, and I need to learn how to poly reduce. Can anyone teach me how?
Simple merge polygons (triangles) in the 3D editor. That's the easiest way. Or woth other words: Delete two and replace them with one. The hardest part won't be this but the retexturing of the ship.
Any other way to do it?
You could try using the directx mesh tool and sliding the bar left until you get to a ok poly count im not sure but it might work
with any method there will be some work required...fixing mess errors and/or retexturing/remapping. not much way around it.
Cb. My own personal preference, when using Milkshape 3d, is to rebuild each section using the original model as a complete reference, and texture as I rebuild.
I agree with Major Payne, the best thing is to completely redo certain parts of the model, using the high-poly part you are recreating as a model. Another thing to do is to eliminate unecessary parts, such as high detailed domes, or light bumps that arent necessary. I just finished a poly reduction on a Starbase 47 Vangard model from BC just for fun, and by just removing those high poly domes, replacing them with lower poly ones and removing the phaser and light bumps, I went from over 7000 polys to just over 4900.
Hello: That process of removing details and rebuilding is the best, I agree, but it can be complicated for someone that is just beginning to make poly-reductions, what you can also do, is to get the model into ms3d and save each group by separate in different filenames, reduce each group by separate and when you are done, merge everything together. With some practice you'll be able to get nice reductions, then you can make rebuildings too :)