Continuing the discussion from No idea how to create this mop head. any suggestions?:
I was thinking it might be helpful to do just that, and get some feedback.
Some of the results demonstrate DRASTIC reductions in edge and face counts, but more modest reductions in file size, depending on the size of textures used and what proportion of the file size they account for.
Example:
Bookcase and desk - original and simple.skp.zip (1.3 MB)
Original:
~7500 edges, ~3000 faces, 2 groups, 1.4MB
Simple version:
368 edges, 99 faces, 31 component instances, 470KB
Things I did to get the simple model:
1 Omit irrelevant details
You can hardly see the cupboard doors under the desk - I just left them out. I similarly left out the runners for the slide-out keyboard tray (gray in the original image).
2 Reduce the shapes to simple outlines, modelled as components
At the range you normally view entourage there is no point in modelling (for example) the individual boards that make up the cupboard and drawer fronts. The simple model has just boxes for the base unit, and one each for uprights and top of the bookcase
The original is modelled with no use of components, and only a few groups. I can’t understand how the modeller did this - it’s much harder! For example, the moulding on the front of the bookcase and the whole of the rest of it is simply loose geometry, all connected.
Even that is modelled it totally excessive detail - here’s an image of the rosette at the top, close up:
The “carving” is recessed into the upright, and each individual arc round the rosette is both duplicated (surface and recess) and composed of 12 individual segments EACH.
The centre of the rosette was a circle of 36 edges, again, doubled.
Here’s the replacement, again excessively close up:
3 Omit invisible faces
The unit has its back to the angle in a wall. So I deleted all the rear and bottom faces in every component including the shelves, which are now only two faces each.
**4 Reduce faceting or remove rounded edges and soften a sharp edge instead **
The desk edging has 12-segment half cylinders edges
I reduced it to a square softened edge
5 Replace complex geometry by an image
I redrew the rosette using an irregular pentagon instead of the complex arcs, and copied the face of the moulding as lines into a new model (using thomthom’s Selection Toys to get just the lines).
I made this into an image using a screen grab and Mac Preview to make the background transparent (use an image editor of your own choice on Windows that will support transparency in a PNG screen grab).
I imported the image onto a face placed a small amount in front of the uprights, made into a component, and copied across to the other uprights.
That made a texture which I used, rotated and positioned across the top, to model the moulding lines there.
The keyboard and mouse are complex 3D objects, modelled as usual with totally over-the-top detail: the keyboard has individually drawn keytops and sculptured rounded edges:
I replaced it with a screen grab from the internet of the top view of a keyboard (and mouse), made the outer background transparent, and imported it onto a single face, with hidden edges, to replace keyboard and separately the mouse.
Blurry this close up, but quite adequate at an reasonable distance.
6 Make separating lines outside the underlying component so they don’t create faces
The lines separating the door fronts from the cupboard are all drawn ‘outside’ the base units, and I deleted any faces created while drawing them. That sharply reduces the face count.
Here’s the bottom left corner of the base unit under the bookcase:
The front of the base unit is only one face.
7. Reduce face count on rounded edges
The original handles were full cylinders with ends. I replaced them by a single face, spaced away from the drawer front.
Sometimes, it is enough to reduce ‘cylinder’ face count from the default 24 to 8, 6 or even 4, and from even a small distance it still ‘looks round’ but the handles here are not important enough to need more than a 2D representation.
8 Reduce texture and image size where possible
The computer monitor used an image (not as a texture) 472 x 314px for the screen display. I reduced it by 50% in each direction. It’s still probably bigger than necessary, and will rarely take up even 100px wide when rendered in the scene
9 Replace complex solid geometry by an image on FaceMe components
Not used in this model, but I did it for a complex table and chairs:
Table and chairs - simple.skp (342.6 KB)
Table and chairs - original.skp (1.1 MB)
The table and chair legs are all FaceMe components, with images of the original legs imported onto a simple rectangular face with hidden edges, and background transparency in the image. The table leg feet are now a simple square with an image, with the FaceMe leg centred above it.
Original
46,372 edges, 22,267 faces, 1.2MB
Simple
731 edges, 371 faces, 393KB