Decimator and Smoothing issues

bexley_ef3f70e572

So I finally got my characters clothing sorted out (thanks to the help from this forum) and tried to Decimate the entire modelfor Iclone.  Anything with a smoothing modifier or a collision set (i.e. the overlapping clothes) seemed to explode!

So, two questions:

1 - Does this mean smoothing/collisions are incompatible with Decimator?  I'm stuck with the high poly count?  I tried locking the smoothing and collision morphs on each and it didn't sem to make any difference.

2 - How do I shut off the Decimator?  If I hit "prepare to decimate" how do I back out of the proceedure?  There doesn't seem to be a cancel button anywhere.

As always your advice is appreciated!

Thomas Windar

Oh wow....

Anyway, on to your questions.

1. Smoothing and Collision relies on having a lot of geometry to move it. It's as if you tried to make collision or smoothing modifier changes to a cube that has 6 faces. There is not much room for it to move. So yeah - those will not work on a decimated figure.

Maybe someone who has the software will answer #2...
I am not sure how DAZ Decimator works, but as much as I know about Decimation is that you buldoze through the mesh and that is not a process that can be dynamically reversed. Most programs even warn you that this process cannot be reverted...

Mythmaker

I don't use the Decimator much as I prefer to retopo with ZBrush to retain quads. This is what I know...

bexley_ef3f70e572 said:

 

1 - Does this mean smoothing/collisions are incompatible with Decimator?  I'm stuck with the high poly count?  I tried locking the smoothing and collision morphs on each and it didn't sem to make any difference.

2 - How do I shut off the Decimator?  If I hit "prepare to decimate" how do I back out of the proceedure?  There doesn't seem to be a cancel button anywhere.

1. Smooth modifier/ collision don't play well after decimating, yes. So just set smooth iteration to zero for Decimated clothing to not explode (no need to remove or turn it off completely). So no, you're not stuck with high poly clothing but you will need other ways to manage pokethroughs before/ after decimating.

2. Once "prepared", Decimator automatically generate a Resolution level option, at the SubD parameter drop down. As LOD(polycount) or as Decimator Working. Not sure why you want to cancel, nor any idea how to erase those decimated Resolution options. Just ignore them I guess...like you ignore higher SubD that you don't plan to use...

 

I just did a round of test of simple dress and Genesis. Have to say Daz Decimator does a good (and very fast) job and tries to keep symmetry. 

bexley_ef3f70e572

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'm not complaining about decimator -- when it works it works fine.  I guess I just won't be able to decimate the smoothed/collision detected clothing without getting poke-through.

As to "cancelling", after I start the process I'd like to be able to back out,rather than reset all the resolutions manually -- or is there a way of "group resetting" everything to base?

Mythmaker

bexley_ef3f70e572 said:

 

As to "cancelling", after I start the process I'd like to be able to back out,rather than reset all the resolutions manually -- or is there a way of "group resetting" everything to base?

That's a feature worth a request for next update. Always wish I could make a custom action or script to one click 'Set Selected To Base Resolution'.

Limba

One note for decimators odd behavior can be that settings for removing hidden polygons. This also remove polygon under transparent material.

I mean if you see material that have lots of holes.