I am building models in 3D Studio Max and exporting to .obj files.
When i am finished in Max the polygon count is 57,213
When I import in to Vue 5 Infinite the polygon count is 92,486
When I import into Vue 6.60-04 Build 292711 the polygon count is 120,680
Any idea why that is the case. I would much rather build in Vue 6.6 as it has a few features I like.
With out doing a file reduction is there a setting for import that can help this issue.
file size is key for optimum speed in Vue.
any help here would be great!
Regards, Tom

Your OBJ models are converted to triangles when imported.  Edit the objects and verify their smooth setting in Vue.  I use 50 degrees.  They will look much like they did in 3DS Max.

Exporting them from Vue is a whole other ball game.

I don't own 3D Studio Max , so i can't experiment with objects, export or polygon count ...

The above info from ShawnDriscoll sounds reasonable ...

A little experiment i was able to do:
I've used a snow truck model, i've build in Silo 3D and exported it in OBJ and in 3DS format.
Then i loaded this model into Vue 5 Infinite, Vue 6 Infinite, Vue 8 Infinte and C4D demo.

The results in polygon count:

Object in Silo 3D modeler:
108953 polygons

in Vue 5 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
86919 - OBJ

in Vue 6 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
108947 - OBJ

in Vue 8 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
108947 - OBJ

in Cinema4D R11.5 demo:
108934 - 3DS
55853 - OBJ

I can't tell you exactly, why Vue 5 loads the OBJ format with a smaller polygon count, but my guessing is, that it does an automatic decimation by itself, without asking the user, if it's even wanted. All the following versions of Vue like 6, 7 and now 8 show an extra little object import options window, where the user can decide, if centering, resizing or if decimation is wanted already at loading the object. But why the decimation is only done in Vue 5 with the OBJ objects, that's beyond my knowledge ...

**Hi Guys,
Sounds like I am just glued to Vue 5 for the time being.
I have Maya, Cinema 4D and Max as my main programs but I prefer Max for modeling as it has some pretty cool tools in there.
Vue is really not that bad of a program if you don't get too fat on the models.
I usually weld stuff in Vue that does not need to be on it's own, just so Vue does not have to think too hard to keep track of all those objects.
Also have learned to keep the images I use for textures to a relatively small size.
Any way thanks for the info guys.
Kind regards, tom

P.S. Arraxxon would you be interested in buying Cinema 4D? Don't use it much these days.****

**

Quote - Object in Silo 3D modeler: 108953 polygons

in Cinema4D R11.5 demo:
108934 - 3DS
55853 - OBJ

Weird.  Why is C4D not showing the same OBJ count?  Does it remove triangles on import?

DreamlandModels,
Yes, using hi-res texture images on UV mapped objects in Vue will eat up resources.  I usually just have one or two.  The rest of my objects are farther from the camera and I can use 512x512 or 1024x1024 on them instead of 4096x4096.  For terrains, there's a trick to convert 256x256 resolution into 496x4096 without any decrease in resources.

Not only does Vue count poly's differently between versions, but it does it differently between flavors of the same version. i.e. Vue 6 Infinite and Vue 6 Easel give considerably different readings on the same object which makes no sense to me. That's actually why I stopped including poly counts on my Vue products as people were always complaining that they were wrong

Here is a little more info.
  Ihave the file saved in Vue 5 infinite and opened it in Vue 6.60-04 Infinite and the polygon count was 120,000 as if I imported the .obj from scratch.
Go figure.
I really wish someone would hire some programmers and send them on a mission to France and break into E-On and rewrite the program the way it should be written. 8-)
I guess I might just as well go back to version 6.60-04 as that is what the poly count will end up being when people bring it into Vue 6 7 or 8 anyway. So much for things getting better with every new version. Can you say Windows 7?
Regards, Tom

Vue remembers the links to imported OBJ models and (in version 7.5 at least) asks if you want to update any imported models in a scene if it sees that you've modified any with Silo since you last opened the Vue scene.  Kind of cool.

Another aspect on that is that the polygon counter does not count the polygons that an object has but the polygons that are displayed in OpenGL. Therefore, different OpenGL engine (and quality level), other polygon count.

I noticed that mostly between Vue 6 and 7, when suddenly most of my scenes showed a much higher polygon count.

Wabe,

i'm not sure, if that would be caused by the OpenGL engine (1.0, 2.0, 2.1 ..).
Since i've tested a single object - always the same one either in OBJ or in 3DS - and the polygon count in Vue 5, 6 and 8 (Vue 8 uses the new OpenGL 2.1 ...) and displays more details in the view windows working on a scene with terrain, plants and objects.
But not really a big visual change with that single, untextured object i've used and as you can see in my earlier post - the polygon count is always the same, at least using the 3DS object.

Which lets me asume, that with each higher Vue version the details for terrains and plants where got raised, because of new introduced and calculated technics - which maybe would be more or less visible after rendering the scene with the different versions ...

But - still, that's just my guess ...