I have a model of a building in .3ds file format. This building has lots of polygons (around 60,000 triangles). Is there a way in 3D studio Max 4 I can select the object and make it have fewer polygons? Thanks

Well, there are some mesh simplification tools, but they aren''t very good.

It sounds like you got the mesh from somewhere else, and now you want to make it low-poly. This is the wrong way to go about it. Low-poly meshes need to be designed as such from the very beginning, or the quality will suffer greatly.

I suggest you start from scratch. Use the high-poly building as a reference. Turn its edges some easy-to-ignore color, and lock it into the background. Then build up a new mesh around it, keeping the poly-count low and mimicking the general shape of the original.


Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.

I know you say these tools are not that good but can you tell me what they are so I can try them to see if they will work for me?
Thanks

Why don''t you look in the nice, printed bound manual you got when you bought 3ds max 4?


Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.

Dean, there is a modifier called optimize. Its not great but it works. Just apply that and turn up the face thresh in the panel. there are other settings so just play around and maybe youll get what youre looking for.

-Lou

another idea is, build a simplified version of the building (with its basic geometry) and then you can take your high-end model and render orthogonal views of each side with good lighting, which can serve as your texture for the basic geometry modeled building.

a2k

Optimize function is available, use it first than weld any un-needed verticies.
a2k''s suggestion is also very good, if you are allowed you can do the same thing for bump-mapping.

(oh and, "steel" should be "steal". Steel is a metal)

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You can reduce it by hand, especially when its a building. It won''t take that long.