Hi, I would be very grateful if someone could offer their support / help. I am not a modeller but a software engineer so please excuse my lack of knowledge / 3D terms etc! I have a trial version of 3D Stdio Max (with access to the full version if needed) but I have no idea how to use it properly. Basically I want to convert a very high poly mesh into a low poly collision mesh. I have used the "optimize" modifier to reduce the polys but it is still very detailed afterwards. I really want something that would just create a basic shape that matches the dimensions exatacly but takes away the details (such as the ridges etc). I dont want to use a basic box or sphere bounding because I need exact collision detection. Is there a modifer / method in 3D Max that I can use to do this automatically. I have used Okino Nugraf software to reduce and process the polys but the polys become very messy and not very good for collision detection. Not being a modeller I am not skilled enough to use the software to remove / edit the polys so wondering if there is a better / more automatic solution. I hope this makes sense and I hope someone can help me. Thank you in advanced. Regards Paul

Rarely is exact collision needed, so you can get away with just using a series of primitives that approximate the shape of the character. In other words, in all likelihood you would be using just a bunch of boxes and/or cylinders, say a dozen or so that fit over the shape of the character's limbs, head, etc. As far as Max tools that would do that for you, I haven't the foggiest. The basic shapes could be fitted in less than a half an hour once you familiarize yourself with manipulating Max's primitives.

one way would be to model the lowpoly collision mesh, but since you said you dont know much about 3d programs than thats probably out of the question. but if you are insterested, i would personally do it with spline modeling(so if you are insterested, learns simple spline modeling(you "draw" connected lines to make the wireframe of the 3d model), skin modifier(adds triangles to the spline wireframe) and snapping(you use this so you snap(position) the splines to the highpoly model) -this what you'll need to know