Mesh simplification ?

What is the most intelligent mesh simplification technique ?

not complicating it in the first place :wink:

sorry couldn’t resist

decimate works quite well
but if you want perfection retopo

Well i do understand that, but i want to know if there is any good automatic re-mesh typology or decimation options, what i m looking is something in between planar decimation and collapse, basically im longing for something that decide the amount of decimation based upon normal definable angles or weights, iv tried meshlab but i cant find the thing i am looking for the closest i found so far is the poisson remesh option but it makes the objects to polygon heavy and does not simply the planar areas enough.

ZBrush or 3D-Coat

Those are probably very good programs but is there any free and open source alternatives or techniques i could use in Blender, Meshlab or similar free software to make more efficient models that use more polygons only where its needed ?

Not everyone can afford software like that, i know you can download “torrents” but im looking for fully free and legal alternatives if possible, as that is always preferred as an option when available.

I don’t think there is any free and/or open source automatic remeshing that is any close to the level of the ones in the application Richard Marklew pointed.

If you want a very good topology, there’s only retopo manually when it comes to Blender, it’s good at it and it has some addon that can help working retopo faster.
The only automatic remeshing Blender has is the Remesh modifier, but if the goal is to have very good topology, the remesh modifier is not the tool for this.

Thank you, good to know, what about reducing the number of polygons without loosing any details, like collapse decimation but closer to planar where as flat areas that do not need as many polygons get more heavily decimated but very bumby surfaces gets to keep more detail, one of the main reasons i need a more automated process is that blender refuses apply some modifiers when it comes to very high poly objects and dyntopo keeps locking up every 2-3 minutes and makes working on bigger meshes interrupted, not to mention when drawing and sculpting it can do the same leaving you waiting for it to respond sometimes until you are forced to close it.

I keep thinking if you could do a weight analysis of the mesh you could maybe use that to adaptivly remesh it for non unified simplification.

I keep thinking if you could do a weight analysis of the mesh you could maybe use that to adaptivly remesh it for non unified simplification.
The decimate modifier can do this with the collapse option. Use weight paint to control effect of the decimation. Just select the vertex group you are painting in the modifier settings


Something to keep in mind is that Blender has an autosaving feature that save your work by default every 2 minutes.
When you’re modelling in edit mode, you don’t notice because you’re not working on high poly in edit mode (because Blender is too slow to be able to work high poly in edit mode).

But when you work in sculpt, having such very low interval in saving is very bad because due to high polycount encountered by sculpt , the autosave will actually freeze Blender for several seconds while you’re in the middle of a sculpt, and that happening every 2 minutes makes sculpting in Blender extremely annoying.

2 solutions for when you are sculpting :

  • disable autosave , in File -> User Preferences -> File and disable “Autosave temporary File”
  • increase the autosave interval a lot, at the same place, the default is 2 minutes, set it to something more convenient for you.

Thank you @Richard_Marklew very useful suggestions.

Pick an edge Loop when in edit mode, Click on the delete key, First Go dissolve edges, Then go Dissolve Verts.

There is also Vertex slide ( Shift-V) and having on automerge editing is also nice as well. Its not quite automated but If you have a dense mesh and non-tangled mesh it works well for taking out un-needed geometry somewhat quickly, While still keeping a high degree of control. But If you got a rats nest from sculpting retopo seems to be your best bet.