Low poly look from 3dmax terrain

[nikolad]

Hi,

 

I spend hours searching but couldnt find easy way how to do this:

(very grateful for any tips)

 

I have a max terrain generated out of contours brought from acad file.

 

I would like to style the terrain to the appearance of low poly terrain.

Please see image for reference.

Retopo is not convenient for such a large area, I am looking more for something almost like conforming plane, but with straightened and diff polygons.

 

 

Thank you

[jensandersen]

Hi Nikola

 

I don't have a fast and simple way to get you the perfect result, but since I couldn't really find anything for 3ds max on the big inter web either, I tried this out:

 

Apply a "prooptimizer" modifier to your mesh and get it as low as you can.

Right click your mesh -> Convert to ->Convert to editable patch

Right click your mesh (again) -> Convert to -> NURBS (this may take a while, be patient!)

Play around with the settings (rather CPU demanding if its a big mesh).

 

Most stuff available for max seems to focus on smoothing edges, but if you can find some way to "randomize" normals or smoothing groups, you should be golden. Hope this was usefull in some way.

 

Please do post if you find a better way to do it!

 

Good luck!

[Nic H]

optimize modifier is the quickest way

[nikolad]

Thank you, the result is very pleasing.

[jasonstewart]

For future use this may be helpful, very handy for converting imported terrain to quads but with a low x,y count it may do what you want.

 

http://populate3d.com/products/terrain/