PolyCruncher equivalent plugin or software?

[Uzair]

hi all.
i've been looking around for a plugin for 3ds max which is really really awesome called Polycruncher to reduce the polycount of the mesh but i found out that its really expensive. and for a student its not affordable as it seems. i was wondering if there is any other software for free use which can give result somewhat similar to polycruncher?

[darthviper107]

Do it by hand, there's no automatic way to do it that produces a nice result

[kaleden]

I'm not familiar with PolyCruncher, but have you used ProOptimizer or MultiRes modifiers? I think they do a fine job on static meshes.

[Jetfire]

You should check out the built in Simplygon tool, the results might surprise you, unless you're stupidly picky ;p

[XilenceX]

You should really give ReDucto a try!
http://psychocore.com/index2.html
It is a standalone app that seems to give the best possible results. I haven`t tried it much yet tho as I currently only do low poly modelling.

[BYS]

I experimented with the open source tool Meshlab a while ago. It did quite well at poly reduction and also includes some other useful functionality for cleaning up meshes and repair certain errors. It can even retain uv coordinates. Only problem is that the last time they updated it was in 2011.

[Mougli]

If you're after polygon reduction for Level Of Detail meshes, then as Jetfire says, Simplygon gives fantastic results and is included with UDK.

If you're after polygon reduction because your original mesh has too many polygons, then you're doing it wrong.

[Uzair]

i was actually trying to convert the mesh into a low level mesh after detail sculpturing in mudbox or zbrush to use it in the process of projecting the high poly onto the low poly and generate NormalsMaps and other maps. i saw the tutorial dvd from Eat3d named Old Damaged Pillar and that guy used polygonCrucher that gave pretty good results but that plugin is worth $129 so cant afford it. but i saw a post in eat3d which was really helpful. do check it out.
http://eat3d.com/free/meshlab

[darthviper107]

If you're doing it for a static mesh then it's OK, but for something that will be animated like a character that wouldn't work well because you need specific topology for animation which those tools can't take into account when they reduce the polygon count.

[iniside]

http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

[Uzair]

well but according the people from meshlab say that it can also be used for character meshes.

[MonsOlympus]

At op: how come you don't have the original mesh from before the sculpt, can't you use that?

[Uzair]

aaaa use that for ??? actually when i say i want the projection on the normal maps i mean the details that i have achieved after the sculpting part. but if you can elaborate what you were referring to it would be great.

[darthviper107]

well but according the people from meshlab say that it can also be used for character meshes.

It's not like you can't, it's that the results won't make for the best topology for an animated character.

[Steve-]

If you're working in Zbrush look into setting up retopology and decimation master.

[Uzair]

well yea i have heard of the decimation master in Zbrush but currently i was using Mudbox.