Polygon reduction is critical for anyone working with existing CAD data. Most 3D models are created at extremely high detail which equates to tens of thousands of polygons or more. Developing for real-time Synthetic Environments requires the ability to either model in low detail at the polygon level or model at high detail then reduce the polygon count down.
Thankfully there are tools to aid in this process. Although very good and improving constantly, they can still sometimes generate unpredictable results. For the most part they work best with single-mesh organic objects rather than unjoined groups of non-organic objects.
Polygon reduction tools also play a vital role in creating levels of detail (LODs).
Rational Reducer is a very intelligent, yet extremely easy to use, polygon reduction utility . It can open VRML1, VRML2, 3D Studio (.3ds) and OpenFlight (.flt) file formats. Using Rational Reducer is a simple 3 step process:
1. Open the 3D model you want to reduce.
2. Type in the percentage reduction you require then click the Reduce button.
3. To view the reduced version of the model in the 3D window click the View button or the small eye icon alongside the file. When you're happy with the result save your model.
Rational Reducer has advanced options under the Window menu if you need to tweak the results a little. You can also work on many different models or different versions of the same model, using the View button to compare the differences.
Get some practice either with the sample models in the Rational Reducer default directory or models that you have downloaded off the web.
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