Is Decimator a "must have"?

Wakakanada

Hi, I have a new iMac and looking to focus on Daz based animations. I see Decimator is on sale and was wondering whether folks use it for animation purposes, and how they view it as a tool for speeding up render times and allowing for more complex scenes. Also, does it play well with aniblocks and Animate2?

WendyLuvsCatz

It does indeed work with animate and poses as only the mesh is decimated not the bones.
I rarely use it myself on Genesis as hiding covered body parts and using base resolution it is low poly enough on its own
texture atlas which is included with studio is also usefull.
I use it more for FBX exporting older figures like V3 to iclone myself as even V4 has LOD settings or on LAMH geometry export meshes.
Those can be massive.
It shines on highpoly figures reducing stuff for use in the background.
The older DAZ and Poser stuff in particular and their clothes.
I have found autofitted older clothes work better with it than new stuff made for genesis.

Wakakanada

Thanks for the informative reply, WC!

WendyLuvsCatz

I found testing for another thread M3,V3 and M2,V2 use A LOT LESS RAM loaded than Genesis too
so decimated and covered parts hidden you could build quite a crowd

Sci Fi Funk

I use Atangeo balancer
http://www.atangeo.com/products

I found it brings the size of objects way down before you lose too much detail.

I used it to build my low poly people (which are smaller than the Lorenzos and Lorettas).
You can see how here.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16413/

WendyLuvsCatz

if decimating for use outside DAZ studio
(re-rigging required if in studio)
Ultimate Unwrap 3D is excellent

argus1000

wendy♥catz said:

I rarely use it myself on Genesis as hiding covered body parts and using base resolution it is low poly enough on its own.

I made a test. I exported a Genesis figure as a DUF, first as the base resolution and then as a high-resolution figure. I imported them both in Carrara, and it made no difference. In Carrara, they both have the same number of polygons. I don't understand.

WendyLuvsCatz

duf works differently and decimator and carrara do not work at all via duf
one needs to create a cr2 with a new geometry file and usually use a legacy figure for decimator
where I use it and UUW3D is in iClone and FBX exports from iClone to carrara where you can get massively reduced figures