convert vdb (to polygons) gives a huge number of polygons, how to get better geometry?

[anicg]

having the shape I wannt in vdb, I convert to polygons but end up with a massive half a million polygons for a small object that is supposed to be repeated several times in the scene. That's huge.

I use polyreduce but it looks messy with very big and very small triangles.

Do you have an idea of how to better deal with stuff converted from vdb?

Edited January 29, 2019 by anicg

[vtrvtr]

If the polyreduce options are not enough, generally there's no way around this. If you really must have perfect topology simply don't use a vdb or retopo after it.

You can also try instant mesh, which is conveniently packed into the game dev tools. https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-game-dev-tools-instant-meshes-bridge/

 

 

[Andrea]

Just an idea. When you use "Convert VDB" sop to convert VDB to polygons, you can try increase the adaptivity and see if this way you get a better result

[anicg]

On 1/29/2019 at 2:43 PM, Andrea said:

Just an idea. When you use "Convert VDB" sop to convert VDB to polygons, you can try increase the adaptivity and see if this way you get a better result

thanks the adaptability helps a bit I can go up to 0.05 with acceptable damage to the mesh bringin the total count down from 500K to 100K.

[anicg]

On 1/29/2019 at 2:42 PM, vtrvtr said:

If the polyreduce options are not enough, generally there's no way around this. If you really must have perfect topology simply don't use a vdb or retopo after it.

You can also try instant mesh, which is conveniently packed into the game dev tools. https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-game-dev-tools-instant-meshes-bridge/

 

 

I've used instant mesh and I still need to get to keep th ewhole geometry. Probably using the source code is mush better.

But back to the polyreduce, Do you think I should even care how good it looks in wireframe? I mean other than the wireframe looks ugly is there another impact? for dynamics/fx (destruction, collision...)? is it just the looks?

Edited January 30, 2019 by anicg

[davpe]

if you need to keep polycount low then maybe displacement map is a good solution for you. you can generate low poly mesh with uvs and then bake the hires geometry detail into the uv texture.

[Andrea]

13 hours ago, anicg said:

I've used instant mesh and I still need to get to keep th ewhole geometry. Probably using the source code is mush better.

But back to the polyreduce, Do you think I should even care how good it looks in wireframe? I mean other than the wireframe looks ugly is there another impact? for dynamics/fx (destruction, collision...)? is it just the looks?

It depends how ugly it looks. In this specific case, for what I can see in your model, it should be ok. The main things that can caused troubles to me in the past are holes in the geometry or manifold polygons. For everything else I must say that Houdini is pretty solid and tollerant.

I think that if you try to render this and it looks good to you or to whoever has to decide, you should be fine.

[anicg]

9 hours ago, davpe said:

if you need to keep polycount low then maybe displacement map is a good solution for you. you can generate low poly mesh with uvs and then bake the hires geometry detail into the uv texture.

This sounds great, I just don't know how to do it. Any push in the right direction would be much appreciated.

[davpe]

5 hours ago, anicg said:

This sounds great, I just don't know how to do it. Any push in the right direction would be much appreciated.

this should help

 

[Mark01]

If your wanting nice topo, your best bet would be to take into maya, retopo and then bring back

Edited January 31, 2019 by MilesS1