I'm working on a project and I'm curious to know what features people look for when buying a 3D model. I know the features will change with each type of model, but it will help to get an idea of what's really important.  For example, when I buy clothing, one of the features I look for the number of morphs available and the number of additional materials that are offered for that model by other vendors.  But when it comes to cars, I pretty much want the car doors to open, the seats to move, and the wheels to turn.

What features do you look for when buying a 3D model?

Well I do comic book stuff, but no actual comics (though, like the comics, I collect items I may need should I want to, but I digress).

I look for something that I can reuse or easily alter by mapping. That and hair.

A sensible balance between modelled in detail and polygon count.  For example, there's a superb free model of the Batman Begins/Dark Knight Batmobile which is almost unusable because of the enormous poly count.

If I had the resources I'd reconvert the model and get rid of a lot of the poly weight and replace it with textures, transmaps ans displacement maps.

Another thing which gets my goat is the practice of naming materials such as Mat 1, Mat 2 etc.  Meaningful names, pretty please.

Sensible mapping and material groups are always welcome.  There is at least one vendor here and at DAZ who has the most unfriendly texture layouts.  A shame because the models are really good but the textures are not great and changing them myself is a huge pain in the rear end.

On the subject of textures and so forth, there is absolutely no excuse to leave Reflect_Lite_Mult enabled.  Also, if you must provide fake reflections on surfaces like corneas, give us a way to turn them off.  If you provide a MAT with AO enabled, povide one without.

Will I get more than one use out of it..

Do I need top quality or will something of less quality do the job..

Price..

I hate to admt it, but really good promo images are actually important. If the promo images are badly rendered, I'm often deeply suspicious of the product, even though I've bought a few that were beautiful once, you know, you got to see them rendered with raytraced shadows enabled, etc.

I like very detailed textures because I often render closeups at pixel resolutions meant for print (4k x 4k). So if I use a building, I might render a small section of wall or window. On that note, it's especially nice if textures that appear on adjacent areas are of a similar resolution. It kills me to render something with a highly detailed wall texture and a blurry trim. Also, I know I could do it myself, but vendors who include materials with both hi and lo res versions of their textures make me really, really, really happy.

I find that I'm attracted to small, scenic vignettes rather than huge environments. And if there are parts (rocks, trees, furniture, a wall, a floor, etc) that I can use in other scenes, even better.

Quote - A sensible balance between modelled in detail and polygon count.  For example, there's a superb free model of the Batman Begins/Dark Knight Batmobile which is almost unusable because of the enormous poly count.

If I had the resources I'd reconvert the model and get rid of a lot of the poly weight and replace it with textures, transmaps ans displacement maps.

Another thing which gets my goat is the practice of naming materials such as Mat 1, Mat 2 etc.  Meaningful names, pretty please.

Sensible mapping and material groups are always welcome.  There is at least one vendor here and at DAZ who has the most unfriendly texture layouts.  A shame because the models are really good but the textures are not great and changing them myself is a huge pain in the rear end.

On the subject of textures and so forth, there is absolutely no excuse to leave Reflect_Lite_Mult enabled.  Also, if you must provide fake reflections on surfaces like corneas, give us a way to turn them off.  If you provide a MAT with AO enabled, povide one without.

Hear-hear!!! Jeez, I wish more vendors came in here and read these basic things-to-do... alas, most can't be bothered. Diffuse_value of .8 too much to ask? I spend more time fixing this than anything else.

i like sets with props positioned to also have an invidual .pp2 of the prop at 0.0. 

it makes me think twice before buying another set from a vendor who skips this

Quote - I hate to admt it, but really good promo images are actually important. If the promo images are badly rendered, I'm often deeply suspicious of the product, even though I've bought a few that were beautiful once, you know, you got to see them rendered with raytraced shadows enabled, etc.

I like very detailed textures because I often render closeups at pixel resolutions meant for print (4k x 4k). So if I use a building, I might render a small section of wall or window. On that note, it's especially nice if textures that appear on adjacent areas are of a similar resolution. It kills me to render something with a highly detailed wall texture and a blurry trim. Also, I know I could do it myself, but vendors who include materials with both hi and lo res versions of their textures make me really, really, really happy.

I find that I'm attracted to small, scenic vignettes rather than huge environments. And if there are parts (rocks, trees, furniture, a wall, a floor, etc) that I can use in other scenes, even better.

scenic vignettes, you say  ... hmmm  :a_halo: 

1 - multiple material zones in props and clothes.

With props ( especially scene props ) having multiple material zones allows you to adjust detail in textures/shaders for close-up or far away shots more easily.

With clothes, multiple material zones allow you to design your own color/texture scheme by just using shaders and tiles... increases a model's use-ability.

2 - If you're selling a bedroom or big set... it helps if the walls, ceiling and floor can all be hidden separately so the camera can move around at any focal setting.

What features do you look for when buying a 3D model?

do I need it?

Quote - 2 - If you're selling a bedroom or big set... it helps if the walls, ceiling and floor can all be hidden separately so the camera can move around at any focal setting.

This is MOST important to me, and the one that many modellers insist on ignoring. I've taken to asking for my money back on items that do not allow for this. The argument that hiding a wall spoils the accuracy of IDL renders is hogwash... if that is important to you, you leave the wall in place and use a workaround. In my own experience, the effect is usually quite minimal, or can be "faked" by putting a primitive wall behind the camera.

Please include these features in your products!

Quote - I hate to admt it, but really good promo images are actually important. If the promo images are badly rendered, I'm often deeply suspicious of the product, even though I've bought a few that were beautiful once, you know, you got to see them rendered with raytraced shadows enabled, etc.

I agree. I examine the promo images very closely and if they don't look good I move on.

Quote - Will I get more than one use out of it..

Do I need top quality or will something of less quality do the job..

Price..

Ditto!! Example: DAZ Anubis for Genesis! Great morph, but I don't have any projects in mind even that would use it and certainly not at the price mark it is set at!

any clues on the project, wolf?  they may have more suggestions if they know what you are modelling.

I like models that have tons of clutter, each a house with books and magazines lying around, and dirty plates in the sink etc.

I also like being able to make walls with all their furniture invisible for small rooms for camera angles.

Love esther

Quote - "

I hate to admt it, but really good promo images are actually important. If the promo images are badly rendered, I'm often deeply suspicious of the product, even though I've bought a few that were beautiful once, you know, you got to see them rendered with raytraced shadows enabled, etc."

  I would second that, one character I purchased had such a bad promo that I put off buying it for ages,  I returned time and again and read the technical spec and could not believe something with such a high spec could be so bad,  I waited for some reviews but none appeared.  Finally I took the plunge and it turned out to be fantastic from the first render.   I cannot understand how the same character could produce such a bad set of promos.  I did add a review to the character explaining what I had found but I am still sure that a number of sales were lost due to lack lustre promos.

Quote - On the subject of textures and so forth, there is absolutely no excuse to leave Reflect_Lite_Mult enabled.  Also, if you must provide fake reflections on surfaces like corneas, give us a way to turn them off.  If you provide a MAT with AO enabled, povide one without.

Hear-hear!!! Jeez, I wish more vendors came in here and read these basic things-to-do... alas, most can't be bothered. Diffuse_value of .8 too much to ask? I spend more time fixing this than anything else.

Hey SamTherapy and RobynsVeil -

Can you tell me more about this? I'm finding that I need to clean up the content files before I start using them, but I don't yet know all of the stuff I should be looking for.

I've found  a couple of tools* to be quite useful for doing this but they are limited in scope. Otherwise I do it manually. Eventually I'd like to be able to sweep through a runtime and fix everything, but I need to know what I'm looking for.

• FC2Fix by gsayers to clean up expression poses and CorrectReference by HogSoft to clean up references to textures.

I agree that good promos really makes a difference.

@ ElZagna -

There is a python script to disable Reflect_Lite_Mult but I can't remember who wrote it, or if redistribution is allowed.

That said, it shouldn't really be necessary, since vendors should take care with their material setup.

Back to the topic...

Presentation counts for a lot.  A logo should be readable at least.  There are several products with atrocious logos and eye watering colours on the product text.  Make your thumbnails distinctive and striking but at least give a clue to the product.

Good honest promo renders are a must.  If a thing is postworked in any way, the vendor should point out that fact, even if it's just comping in Photoshop.

A skin texture should show all the texture.  There's at least one texture set in the MP which does not conform to guidelines because it doesn't show front back and side views.  For the life of me, I don't know why it wasn't rejected.

Promo pics should be viewable.  Not everyone has a high contrast monitor.  Some of us still use CRTs.  I have lost count of the images I can't see because they're too damn dark.  I could edit them in Photoshop but why bother?  If a vendor can't be bothered to show their product off well, why should I bother to buy it?

Finally, a real pet hate of mine...

Typos, spelling errors and grammatical errors.  A lack of care in your copy indicates a lack of care elsewhere.  I don't care if English isn't your first language; get someone to proof read and/or correct your spelling and grammar, if necessary.  For native English speakers, there is absolutely no excuse.  If your text is shoddy, your product is probably shoddy, too.

OK. So in the mat file I'd be looking for something like this:

                nodeInput "ReflectionLiteMult"
                    {
                    name "Reflection_Lite_Mult"
                    value 1 0 1
                    parmR NO_PARM
                    parmG NO_PARM
                    parmB NO_PARM
                    node NO_NODE
                    file ""
                    }

Beats me, I just use a script or switch it off manually.

Here's something else which annoys me but it's not always possible to find out until you buy the product...

Meshes which are triangulated for no good reason.  I've bought a few of these and in each case, all the tris do is add to the poly bloat.  It really, really hacks me off to see a surface divided into triangles when a quad would do the job perfectly well.  I'm not completely against tris - they have their place - but they shouldn't be everywhere.

I bought a car from here a few years ago, a real nice model but it's entirely triangles and therefore the poly count is through the roof.  The same vendor upped sticks and moved to DAZ.  He now sells an updated version of the car I bought which has been converted to quads.  Will I buy it again?  Will I bollocks.  I'm considering converting the one I have, though.  Still, it's a pain in the arse to have to do such stuff because the vendor can't be bothered.  Needless to say, a vendor who makes stupidly dense meshes may get one sale from me but no more.

While I'm on the subject of meshes, some of the cleanest and most elegant mesh flows I have seen are by Japanese freebie makers.  Mask-Da and Shukky are masters at making stuff with enough polys to do the job and absolutely no waste.  Take a look at Mask's guitars; not only are they incredibly well detailed and unbelievably accurate, they're not over the top poly-wise.  Would that  other content creators took as much care.

You make a very valid point regarding subsequent sales.  One of the major factors that on my decision to buy or not is whether I have purchased other items from the same vendor and if I was pleased with the purchase. 

I do try new vendors as well but if I have no history of their products the promos take on even more relevance.