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3D-Coat 3.1 updates thread


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  • Advanced Member

Hello everyone,

The new polygon reduction tool is very interesting and it seems it is going to improve greatly as time goes by.

But there's a noob question I have to ask as I don't quite get how it works fully :)

Though it will reduce the polygon count for Voxels, is it possible to import a mesh and then use the tool to reduce

the polygons of the mesh on export, even though it's not a Voxel created object.

It would be very handy for reducing the polycount on some objects I've made outside of 3DC if it can work that way.

I'm not a sculptor as such, some of the sculpts on here are amazing. I got 3DC for UV mapping and painting on meshes but

it's full of nice surprises.

Thanks,

Polygon reduction on imported meshes would be really wonderful! Meanwhile, I'll wait till tomorrow and see what new surprised Andrew will have for us in the next update :)

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Updated to 3.1.17

Changes:

- Reduction tool speed up essentially, it produces much better quality of output mesh.

- Curve manipulation bug mentioned by Jacobo fixed.

- All operations in retopo tool will not destroy existing UV set. It opens good workflow - make coarse mesh, uv it, then add detials to retopo mesh subrividing it or splitting individual edges or faces.

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  • Member

Updated to 3.1.17

Changes:

- Reduction tool speed up essentially, it produces much better quality of output mesh.

- Curve manipulation bug mentioned by Jacobo fixed.

- All operations in retopo tool will not destroy existing UV set. It opens good workflow - make coarse mesh, uv it, then add detials to retopo mesh subrividing it or splitting individual edges or faces.

Hi,

Just curious, will these updates work on the trial version? I'm currently using a 30-day trial with 3.1.15. Thank you.

Also, I just love this program. Sometimes you just click with a program and it makes sense. I'm not sure I'll be able to actually afford it when the 30-days are up, what with xmas and all, but I definitely have enjoyed what I've been able to do so far, so thanks.

Indi.

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Hi,

Just curious, will these updates work on the trial version? I'm currently using a 30-day trial with 3.1.15. Thank you.

Also, I just love this program. Sometimes you just click with a program and it makes sense. I'm not sure I'll be able to actually afford it when the 30-days are up, what with xmas and all, but I definitely have enjoyed what I've been able to do so far, so thanks.

Indi.

Yes, it will work. You need install it overwrite.

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  • Member

Windows & mac versions uploaded.

This doesn't affect the program, but there's a typo in the reduction tool dialog. It says "Redurction percent" when it should say "Reduction percent" instead.

BTW, just as a suggestion for 3.18, maybe you should change the way the percentage is interpreted. Right now, if we have 90% that means that we should reduce it BY 90% and down to 10% of the original. IMHO, it's a bit more intuitive to have the percentage represent the final percentage instead of the reduction percentage. So, instead of us typing 90 to get it down to 10 we could just type in 10 to have it reduced by 90. Internally, this should be a no-brainer to implement.

I only suggest this because there are those who use or have used something like ZBrush's Decimation Master which reduces TO instead of BY (eg. reduced TO 10% instead of reduced BY 90%.)

Logically, it also falls in line with programs such as Photoshop and how scaling is done there. In PS, we don't type 90% to scale an image down to 10%. We just type in 10%. It's just easier the PS way since...well... not everybody can add 3+3. :p

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IMHO, it's a bit more intuitive to have the percentage represent the final percentage instead of the reduction percentage.

Oh I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE!!!! this is so true. Final Poly-count as percentage, or actual count would be nice as well. But really.. 10% should mean 10% of original size. Maya's decimation tools is backward too, and sooo annoying.

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  • Advanced Member

Updated to 3.1.17

Changes:

- Reduction tool speed up essentially, it produces much better quality of output mesh.

- Curve manipulation bug mentioned by Jacobo fixed.

- All operations in retopo tool will not destroy existing UV set. It opens good workflow - make coarse mesh, uv it, then add detials to retopo mesh subrividing it or splitting individual edges or faces.

Sorry I don't understand the last change, could anyone who does understand explain it's use please.

"Make coarse mesh" is the main cause of confusion, I assume the change in a way means we can start with say a simple cube and almost in a way "polygon model" it into something much more complicated?

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What andrew is meaning, is that you can create a basic mesh and UV map, then further edit the topology and the UV map will have the added geometry, edge loops, etc., with out destroying the UV map.

Before, sometimes the UV map would be destroyed in one way or another. Non-destructive UVs with new topology. :)

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"Before, sometimes the UV map would be destroyed in one way or another. Non-destructive UVs with new topology" -

Wooot was wondering when that would be sorted - good now I can up res my really low resolution game models without destroying thier UVs

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Hi,

I notice the Linux build lags behind a day or two, sometimes more. I totally understand that I'm probably one of only a few using the Linux build, I'm not complaining :) Just curious if it's just the build system settling down or is this to be expected for the foreseeable future?

Cheers,

Peter B

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Don't worry pbowmar. Even the linux version is behind two or more days, it will come. I'm happy linux user and for me it is almost opposite how I think about it. I think it's fast how soon we get the linux version.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm just delighted it's on Linux. Like with Houdini it's great to get updates so often from Andrew on all platforms. I was just curious about the delay that's all :)

Cheers,

Peter B

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Right im a convert from Win to Linux and Im thrilled with not only developement speed and updates but also performance on linux. Though Im still finding inconsistency between win and Linux versions. I have problems with certain tools (Stroke retopo for one) in that they just do not function. Mojority of tools work wonderfully fast but just a few that stumble for me at least. I will open a thread and post my inconsistencies.

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I'm not sure why since I've never really gotten a handle on what happens during the process and the settings for quadrangulate and paint but now when I go to use this tool it does not show the poly reduction feature like it did in the previous build. Was this mentioned in the release notes, if so I never saw it. If this feature has been taken out of the quadrangulate and paint then why was it needed in the first place. I really cant see any difference in the end after the process is complete. My other issue I want to bring up is that painting whether it be microvertex or perpixel is so slow that it is almost unuseable. I have a dual core system with a 9800 GTX 500 meg ram graphics card and I'm beginning to wonder why I even need this app. I have bodypaint which is extremeley fast although doesn't have some of the cool features that this app has but it has many of it's own. It seems to me that back in version 2 the painting at least was useable in terms of speed but maybe I'm just missing something here, not trying to complain too much because I know that Andrew is a genius and knows what he is doing. I'm just feeling a bit more and more out of touch with this app. Do I just need to get a better graphics card or more horsepower on the CPU side? There are some features of this program that are extremeley cool and I really want to use it more.

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I'm not sure why since I've never really gotten a handle on what happens during the process and the settings for quadrangulate and paint but now when I go to use this tool it does not show the poly reduction feature like it did in the previous build. Was this mentioned in the release notes, if so I never saw it. If this feature has been taken out of the quadrangulate and paint then why was it needed in the first place. I really cant see any difference in the end after the process is complete. My other issue I want to bring up is that painting whether it be microvertex or perpixel is so slow that it is almost unuseable. I have a dual core system with a 9800 GTX 500 meg ram graphics card and I'm beginning to wonder why I even need this app. I have bodypaint which is extremeley fast although doesn't have some of the cool features that this app has but it has many of it's own. It seems to me that back in version 2 the painting at least was useable in terms of speed but maybe I'm just missing something here, not trying to complain too much because I know that Andrew is a genius and knows what he is doing. I'm just feeling a bit more and more out of touch with this app. Do I just need to get a better graphics card or more horsepower on the CPU side? There are some features of this program that are extremeley cool and I really want to use it more.

Quadrangulation don't need simplification (reduction) of the mesh before. It happened occasionally in one of previous builds. Now it was removed.

But I can't understand speed issue. Per pixel painting works much faster then microvertex in 2.xx

9800 gtx is VERY enough for 3dc. Try full screen mode with alt+enter.

3dc painting may lag if there is big non-subdivided polygon.

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Quadrangulation don't need simplification (reduction) of the mesh before. It happened occasionally in one of previous builds. Now it was removed.

But I can't understand speed issue. Per pixel painting works much faster then microvertex in 2.xx

9800 gtx is VERY enough for 3dc. Try full screen mode with alt+enter.

3dc painting may lag if there is big non-subdivided polygon.

I am able to bring this 67,300 poly 4096x4096 item and paint per pixel without problems. Microvertex loads twice as fast, but I like per pixel better. Painting is fast and smooth in either option.

Thank you. :)

mac os 10.6.2

2x3 Ghz quad-core

16 gb 800

nvidia 8800 GT

post-867-12586503909712_thumb.jpg

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I can't seem to get reduction to work in this build. Program becomes unstable just as it's starting to reduce. I've sent in a couple of bug reports. Anyone have any ideas?

Did you install to a new folder or over another build? If the latter, uninstall and then reinstall to a new folder. Sometimes installing over older builds can cause issues.

What build are you using? If you're using a 64bit, try the 32 (CUDA or no).

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Quadrangulation don't need simplification (reduction) of the mesh before. It happened occasionally in one of previous builds. Now it was removed.

But I can't understand speed issue. Per pixel painting works much faster then microvertex in 2.xx

9800 gtx is VERY enough for 3dc. Try full screen mode with alt+enter.

3dc painting may lag if there is big non-subdivided polygon.

Trying full screen mode, definitely was a big improvement in speed. Thanks.

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  • Advanced Member

I'm not sure why since I've never really gotten a handle on what happens during the process and the settings for quadrangulate and paint but now when I go to use this tool it does not show the poly reduction feature like it did in the previous build. Was this mentioned in the release notes, if so I never saw it. If this feature has been taken out of the quadrangulate and paint then why was it needed in the first place. I really cant see any difference in the end after the process is complete. My other issue I want to bring up is that painting whether it be microvertex or perpixel is so slow that it is almost unuseable. I have a dual core system with a 9800 GTX 500 meg ram graphics card and I'm beginning to wonder why I even need this app. I have bodypaint which is extremeley fast although doesn't have some of the cool features that this app has but it has many of it's own. It seems to me that back in version 2 the painting at least was useable in terms of speed but maybe I'm just missing something here, not trying to complain too much because I know that Andrew is a genius and knows what he is doing. I'm just feeling a bit more and more out of touch with this app. Do I just need to get a better graphics card or more horsepower on the CPU side? There are some features of this program that are extremeley cool and I really want to use it more.

This happens when the model is messy. Intersecting polys, holes. I've come across some models exported from other software and when imported to 3dc its slow to work with. I try to fix the model outside 3dc and then retopo and paint in 3dc.

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Did you install to a new folder or over another build? If the latter, uninstall and then reinstall to a new folder. Sometimes installing over older builds can cause issues.

What build are you using? If you're using a 64bit, try the 32 (CUDA or no).

I've always installed over the last build and I always use 32 bit without CUDA. So, I'll try this. Thanks for the tip.

M

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