Pretty much any conforming clothing i've obtained, and turned into a dynamic clothing using export -> wavefront objects are about 4 meg+ filesize, and slows the simulation down. The count is about 400+ usually.

This compared to any freebie dynamic clothing that's about 300 k in file size, and the simulation count is about 10-20. I also noticed that when i slapped on a magnet to the dynamic clothing, the simulation count jumped up to 100+.

Ok my question: Is there any way or tricks to speed this thing up?

Make sure that your converted conforming cloth has no intersections (check armpits first). Poser tries to manage this und needs time, time time time - mostly with bad results.

Good dynamic cloth is special constructed. Conforming cloth may have other, special requirements. Converting one into another often fails.

What do you mean by intersections?

Also, it seems that almost all the conforming clothing i have is 50+k polygons, whilst the dynamic clothing ones are barely a few hundred to a few thousand.

Is there some sort of tool to reduce the polygon count by merging them together or something?

"Poke Through" in the oposide direction. Cloth pokes into the figures mesh. If a piece of cloth is used with dynamics, it has to "float" over the characters skin. Just like real cloth does.

"Super-Highres-Meshes" are just a waste of resources (memory and rendertime). If someone needs details, displacement maps should be used.

It's mostly not possible to reduce the size of a mesh with acceptable results.

Quote - Also, it seems that almost all the conforming clothing i have is 50+k polygons, whilst the dynamic clothing ones are barely a few hundred to a few thousand.

Is there some sort of tool to reduce the polygon count by merging them together or something?

 

Dynamic clothing requires a lot fewer polygons and a lot simpler geometry in order to run in poser.

When someone wants to make a more detailed model, they sort of have to go with comforming clothing.

Most 3D modelling programs have a utility to reduce polygon counts, but in most cases you don't end up with larger square faces, but with a lot of oddly placed triangles. This again doesn't make poser cloth simulation very happy.

seanlo:

I've read often about how Poser doesn't work well with triangles, but I have to say that in my experience it just isn't true.  I've converted conforming clothes to .obj's and deliberately "split" the rectangles into triangles to get a smoother look.  Also, there are dynamic clothes--made as dynamic clothes--consisting entirely of triangles that work like a charm and run very fast in simulation.  So I would say to ignore the warnings and try it yourself.

Regarding the slowness of converted dynamic clothes in simulation, I have the same problem.  I don't think there is much you can do about it.  One thing you can try is to run the drapping simulation only, then export the drapped object, and try running the cloth simulation over that.

Quote - seanlo:

I've read often about how Poser doesn't work well with triangles, but I have to say that in my experience it just isn't true.  I've converted conforming clothes to .obj's and deliberately "split" the rectangles into triangles to get a smoother look.  Also, there are dynamic clothes--made as dynamic clothes--consisting entirely of triangles that work like a charm and run very fast in simulation.  So I would say to ignore the warnings and try it yourself.

 

The issue is not with triangles themselves. If you take a quad based surfacem and densify it so that each quad becomes two triangles, there's no problems.

It's when you try and simplify a mesh, most mesh decimating routines will make triangles spanning 1, 2 , 3, 5 or even more old quads or triangles, resulting in looong skinny tiangles wherever the object surface is pretty uniform.

Mesh decimating routines don't take small triangles or quads, and make them into uniformly spread larger triangles. (imagine inverse tessalation. they don't do this.)
When you decimate a mesh you get a very irreguilar mix of triangle sizes and placement. The problem isn't with triangles, the problem is with irregilarity of a decimated mesh.
Same would happen if there was a lot of irregularly sized and placed quads, but I'm yet to se a decimator that leaves you with quads.

Well i'm not exactly a graphics pro. I can barely understand half of what most of you wrote. ;)

Anyways, what would be your solution to turning a conforming cloth into a dynamic cloth for the simulation if the vertex count was extremely high connie?

here's an example of what I'm talking about. Left pic is the original mesh. Pic on the right is a decimated mesh that has 1/4 of the polygons of the left one. I circled some of the problem areas. Those long skinny polygons would be a problem  (couldn't bend in a simulation) regardless of whether they are triangles or quads.

More technically correct term would be that the 'topology' of the mesh is the problem, but there's a lot fewer people whom know what topology means, so triangles get a bad rap.

I'm yet to see a routine that lets you efficiently pick in more detail how to simplify a mesh. Those that I did see that allow some liberty need a lot of user input, to a point where it's more efficient modelling a new simpler mesh.

Quote - Well i'm not exactly a graphics pro. I can barely understand half of what most of you wrote. ;)

Anyways, what would be your solution to turning a conforming cloth into a dynamic cloth for the simulation if the vertex count was extremely high connie?

 

I don't know that there is one in poser. Some of more detailed meshes just aren't meant for that kind of use.

You can take parts of a conforming mesh (like loose flowing sleeves or a skirt) and convert just that part into dynamic. Make other parts of the mesh into soft and rigid decorated groups, or not a part of simulation at all.

Quote - Same would happen if there was a lot of irregularly sized and placed quads, but I'm yet to se a decimator that leaves you with quads.

 

I think this is likely the problem with converted dynamic clothes.  It's resolved in simulation, but it takes a very long time.

Welll... it may get resolved in simulation, but it usually gives undesireable results.
Cloth simulation in poser doesnt' add or refine polygons, so if a cloth bend needs to ripple across (as opposed to along with) a long skinny polygon, it can't. The long skinny polygon only ends up seesawing, and creating unrealistic looking distortions.

It's probably better you guys try it and see for yourself how things end up lookingm then just going by what I say.
(I've BTDT, have strange looking dynamic results to show for it. Actually, unfortunately I didn't save them)