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What is a normal polygon count for an architectural visualisation scene? Super Lag!


williamcai
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This is my first time using 3dsmax to do an arch viz scene, but without any cars or trees loaded, it's at 350k polys, and I have some trees and cars from evermotion, but they are at 400k polygon each! If I want to add a few, that will easy surpass a 2 mil poly count. I am using a standard "gamer" laptop and I can barely spin around as is with the 350k poly.

 

Graphics nvidia 460M 1.5GB

16 GB Ram

i7 Cpu.

 

So my question is, is it normal to surpass 2 million polygons and is it normal to get 0.5 fps at 350k polygons? Everything was just imported from sketchup, and sketchup doesn't lag at all...

 

I've set my driver to Direct3D and is there some sort of configuration to reduce this insane lag for my computer? This is so unbearable that I want to cry! Which is the reason I never tried learning Max because I always think I don't have the raw computer power for it.

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Cant say what is 'normal' for a scene as every scene varies in poly count......just how it is.....

 

But evermotion stuff is modeled to death and their poly counts are insane, dont know why they overmodel every single thing.....make proxys outa them so that you can free up graphic ram....

 

Big scenes do have lots of polys, but in general I would say that going to 2 mil is alot, I have had far more than that, but then we are talking massive projects, sorta city type things....

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ya, that's what I thought. One evermotion model takes more than my entire scene itself. Do people usually photoshop cars/plants/people in or do you use models. I know that's another "it depends question", but are there usually a thumb of rule as to when to do what?

 

Almost all the best arch viz in my preference are pretty much modelled in, but I can't tell whether "Doug&Wolf" photoshops or models. JPW_BAR_l.jpg

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I wish all my scenes had under 2 million polys! It's obviously best to keep poly count as low as possible by detailing just what is near the cameras etc.

 

It does vary a lot though depending on project size. Like marius erasmus said.

 

We often have to scatter trees and bushes across large landscapes so are probably in to billions of polys when everything has to render. Needless to say proxys are the way to get lots of detail for less used RAM. We use VRay.

 

There isn't really a norm because it depends on how detailed your models are. It's a tough one to answer to be honest.

 

You are of course bound by your computers capabilities. If you can't render it in the end, then the chances are you have to reduce poly count, or collapse modifier stacks to save RAM.

 

I'd suggest trying all the different display modes. I'm using OpenGL at the moment. We have various different graphics cards here and find certain modes are better on some machines. Use 1 large viewport and use wireframe as much as possible when navigating around. Turn off the statistics too as having this displayed can slow the viewport down. If you need to use smooth and highlights, you can turn off maps so they are not displaying.

 

What version of Max are you using?

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Is there a thumb of rule as to when to use photoshop and when to model for cars/people/trees/environment? I know this is another "it depends" but just curious. Like Doug&Wolf, I guess they just all photoshop, but its damn good looking photoshop! Can anyone confirm whether this is PS or Model?

 

http://www.dougandwolf.com/img/JPW_BAR_l.jpg

 

 

ps. using Max2013

Edited by williamcai
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It's a nice image with lots of feeling, but if you look closely there are a few obvious photoshop issues.

 

I'd say, looking at the image, that all of the people are Photoshoped in. This is definite because there are no 3D people that look this good and also if you look at the shadows, they are a slightly different colour and angle and also the lady standing in the tree shadow, is casting a shadow on the tree shadow! This is impossible in the real world. The trees on the other hand are harder to judge. They are blended in nicely with the lighting, but the large tree shadow on the floor does look a bit photoshoped in, it's a tricky on e to call though. The image has been post produced a lot too with all the lighting effects. They don't come like this straight out of a render!

 

I think these days more and more can be done in 3D. Most of our cars, trees and greenery is 3d, but we always add people in Post for still images because they always look better. Unless they are in the distance. In an animation 3D is the only way really.

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2 mil is a lot

 

I've worked on projects from a few hundred thousand to over 140 million polygons. All render, but obviously the scene acts better the lower you can go. I think 2 million is very normal so getting below this is not worth the effort. 16GB of ram is more than enough to handle more. Make sure the dynamic memory allowance is roughly half of the total.

 

Also, Proxies are great, as was mentioned, but the important part is to instance repeated objects. Proxy or otherwise. You can also reduce the number of polys that display in the viewport when you create the proxy. default is 10k, but I have found that 3k is usually just fine. it is also important to note that you are not saving anything if you proxy a model that is less the total you allow to be displayed. In fact, you are just hurting your memory on the render end.

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