LE Optimizing as you go (New to modelling, Need some answers)

[Sader325]

Alright so I'm very new to modelling, over the weekend I managed to create my first actual model (a custom sword) and get it into the game.

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/Sader325/TESV2012-03-1821-11-09-48-1.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/Sader325/TESV2012-03-1821-11-24-88-1.jpg

 

Now on one hand it worked perfectly fine, but I do know that the model itself is very unoptimized, and in many cases uses a considerable amount of resources compared to the vanilla models of the same size. The polgyon count (I'm pretty sure its the polygon count anyway) is about 10x larger.

 

Now while I don't want to go as low poly as the vanilla models, I do need to figure out how to keep the count low. After trying (and mostly failing) to optimize my model after I had already made it, I've decided that perhaps the way to optimize is during the creation of the model, rather than after the fact.

 

Is this the way to do it? Or is there some other method I'm missing. I'm using 3DSMax, if that makes a difference.

Edited March 19, 2012 by Sader325

[Ghogiel]

congrats on first model in game and all.

 

basically don't put polygons anywhere you don't want them.

 

So yeah, pretty much that... though I am usually using a clone of some of my high poly to strip out to use as my real time mesh more often than not... especially when it's hard surface and I made the high poly with subdivision modelling, just removing supporting edges and generally murdering it. The low poly geo only need to be clean to a certain extent, for like good shading and UVs.

 

But if you are just modelling a base mesh then.. I'll get my time machine... ok, so where was I? yeah, you basically just model all the polygons as you want them to be. In the circumstance of a mesh as simple as that sword, it's just a slightly fancy box really, it should be really quite straight forward to rebuild the mesh with a topology density that you desire, you're the modeller, you control where you put the edge loops.

[Sader325]

Thanks for the reply and info Ghogiel, I just stumbled upon another problem you might be know something about.

 

I'm working on a new armor for my next project and I ran in to an issue I'm not sure I understand.

 

So far I've managed to import the armor into the game, its wearable and functions mostly correctly. However I'm having a strange graphic issue.

 

Basically after I add bones to the armor when viewed in nifskope (and ingame) if I zoom out the camera, small parts of the mesh disappear. Can rigging an armor with bones cause a graphic issue? I mean the armor moves perfectly fine ingame, but like I said before. Zooming out causes some parts to disappear slightly while if you zoom in to about the normal distance everything looks perfect.

 

*EDIT*

 

Err I figured it out.

 

Apparently I didn't totally complete the BSDismembermant block correctly.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Sader325

[IgnacyOrder]

Looks awsome :)