A quick note: the min-width will prevent some of your changes from taking effect: if you lower tolerances that demands edges to be below the min-width, the min-width will override it
Thanks for the video. One thing it clearly shows is how much work Plasticity’s exporter still needs. Not saying one can’t get anything usable out of it, but if you need or want even somewhat clean and optimized topology, it’s going to take a lot of clean up. Ngons are hiding (not fixing) some of the issues, but even there you can see how many poor choices the algorithm is making with edge connections, all those discontinued edges creating unnecessary triangles and lacking control over local detail. Not to even mention those higher degree surfaces. As a workaround, in some cases you can/need to export a highpoly and rework the topology using automated and/or manual tools in f.ex. ZBrush or 3DCoat.
@kingcognito Thanks for watching. I agree that, depending on your individual use case, you may need to rework the topology in some cases. If I were going to use models in a video game, I would probably rework them, but I usually make actual real-world physical models from my designs, so in my case, I don't need to. My main focus right now is to show people how to work with the tools in their current state of development.
game models have to be much lower res than most of whats happening here. i can use techniques in blender to get the high and low at the same time, see chamfer zone's revolver tutorial. technique outlined there. i love plast but the amt of cleanup for game assets is kind of alot of work still at this point. also ngons kind of hide the geo your really gonna get. makes it much harder to asses whats really going on. ngon is just hiding polys from view it still makes them.
I agree with the ngons and the amount of clean up required. Disagree about the game models needing to be much lower res - unless we’re talking about mobile. Most other platforms can handle polygons just fine and there is no need for jagged visible polyedges in modern games. In fact, it’s often sensible to save time and move to the next asset, rather than optimize everything down to their last vertices and/or go with few more polygons to avoid those long thin triangles that can clog up the shader pipeline.
@marsmotion You are correct, Plasticity is not a good fit for everyone. I always tell people to use whatever tools they are comfortable with. At the end of the day, it's the results that matter, not the tool you get there with. I also try not to tell people how things should be done because it's different for each person. At the end of the day people should just be creating great things and having fun doing it.
I find the settings hard because ive spent all that time making a perfectly smooth model for rendering but can't properly UV the result so feel I have to downgrade the model but worry I'll then lose curved detail and get facetting etc
@iKaGe01 That's why you should export two models, one very high resolution and one lower resolution that is easy to UV map. Then, you can bake the high-resolution details to the lower-resolution model and not have that issue. At some point, I plan to create some tutorials on that subject. Maybe I can get some time this weekend to do one.
@@philprocariojr3563 That is still emulating detail though so will hamper close-ups etc unless it really is that good that the model will hold up to scrutiny even when done this way. Already use for example a bevel shader to add fillets on very sharp edges which does work
@iKaGe01 You said it is emulating detail, and although that is true, don't forget that in DCC apps like Blender, you have displacement maps, which will add physical details back at render time. A lot of people underestimate the power of displacement maps.
@@philprocariojr3563 Thanks for the replies. Would love a video about something along of that as I'm scared of doing all this CAD model to then have to downgrade for texturing. I've had some success with UVs with the high poly set to 1 but it has took a long while. Also the plasticity importer allows for selecting via island name which has made it a bit easier, even if with no seams, it seems to separate the model and you have to pin sections
imo it's better to add filets and bevels inside main 3d modeling app rather than fiddle with exporter settings, it'll never get those round corners right.
A quick note: the min-width will prevent some of your changes from taking effect: if you lower tolerances that demands edges to be below the min-width, the min-width will override it
Indeed, it will. Thanks for bringing that up!
Thanks for the video. One thing it clearly shows is how much work Plasticity’s exporter still needs. Not saying one can’t get anything usable out of it, but if you need or want even somewhat clean and optimized topology, it’s going to take a lot of clean up. Ngons are hiding (not fixing) some of the issues, but even there you can see how many poor choices the algorithm is making with edge connections, all those discontinued edges creating unnecessary triangles and lacking control over local detail. Not to even mention those higher degree surfaces.
As a workaround, in some cases you can/need to export a highpoly and rework the topology using automated and/or manual tools in f.ex. ZBrush or 3DCoat.
@kingcognito
Thanks for watching. I agree that, depending on your individual use case, you may need to rework the topology in some cases. If I were going to use models in a video game, I would probably rework them, but I usually make actual real-world physical models from my designs, so in my case, I don't need to. My main focus right now is to show people how to work with the tools in their current state of development.
Great video, very helpful. Thanks! Curious about "degree 2, 3, etc" videos.
@dbmd_uk
th-cam.com/video/t-f86zb-4_g/w-d-xo.html
I made this video to help describe what they are and how and when to use them. More will come later.
Thanks bro
My pleasure; thanks for watching.
game models have to be much lower res than most of whats happening here. i can use techniques in blender to get the high and low at the same time, see chamfer zone's revolver tutorial. technique outlined there. i love plast but the amt of cleanup for game assets is kind of alot of work still at this point. also ngons kind of hide the geo your really gonna get. makes it much harder to asses whats really going on. ngon is just hiding polys from view it still makes them.
I agree with the ngons and the amount of clean up required. Disagree about the game models needing to be much lower res - unless we’re talking about mobile. Most other platforms can handle polygons just fine and there is no need for jagged visible polyedges in modern games. In fact, it’s often sensible to save time and move to the next asset, rather than optimize everything down to their last vertices and/or go with few more polygons to avoid those long thin triangles that can clog up the shader pipeline.
@marsmotion
You are correct, Plasticity is not a good fit for everyone. I always tell people to use whatever tools they are comfortable with. At the end of the day, it's the results that matter, not the tool you get there with. I also try not to tell people how things should be done because it's different for each person. At the end of the day people should just be creating great things and having fun doing it.
Thank you for this. :) This is really helpful.
@Contactbps I'm glad you found it helpful.
I find the settings hard because ive spent all that time making a perfectly smooth model for rendering but can't properly UV the result so feel I have to downgrade the model but worry I'll then lose curved detail and get facetting etc
@iKaGe01 That's why you should export two models, one very high resolution and one lower resolution that is easy to UV map. Then, you can bake the high-resolution details to the lower-resolution model and not have that issue. At some point, I plan to create some tutorials on that subject. Maybe I can get some time this weekend to do one.
@@philprocariojr3563 That is still emulating detail though so will hamper close-ups etc unless it really is that good that the model will hold up to scrutiny even when done this way.
Already use for example a bevel shader to add fillets on very sharp edges which does work
@iKaGe01 You said it is emulating detail, and although that is true, don't forget that in DCC apps like Blender, you have displacement maps, which will add physical details back at render time. A lot of people underestimate the power of displacement maps.
@@philprocariojr3563 Thanks for the replies. Would love a video about something along of that as I'm scared of doing all this CAD model to then have to downgrade for texturing. I've had some success with UVs with the high poly set to 1 but it has took a long while.
Also the plasticity importer allows for selecting via island name which has made it a bit easier, even if with no seams, it seems to separate the model and you have to pin sections
@iKaGe01 Do you have a link with pics of the model you are working on?
imo it's better to add filets and bevels inside main 3d modeling app rather than fiddle with exporter settings, it'll never get those round corners right.
I'm happy with the export results I am getting.