Pixologic Release: Decimation Master MOVIE added P.12 & Plugin Update on P.15

[aurick]

Header


With Decimation Master you will be able to easily reduce the polygon count of your models in a very efficient way while keeping all their sculpted details. This solution is one of the fastest available and is able to optimize your high polycount models from ZBrush, allowing you to export them to your other 3D software packages.

Sculpt your model with ZBrush, add all your small details and push your artistic skills, then optimize your ZTool. Export it to your favorite 3D package which will now be able to open your sculpting to create specific textures like Normal Maps or Ambient Occlusion maps by baking the high resolution mesh information on a low resolution mesh.

Another use is to export your model for a Rapid Prototyping process (3D printing) and bring your virtual art to a real object but also displaying your model in a real-time viewer such as PDF 3D. The possibilities are infinite!

Main features



High quality optimization with accuracy details.
Two different optimizations for a better control of the result.
Optimization based on the polypainting information
Support of Masks for details protection.
Border protections.
Support of the symmetry and partial symmetry.
Optimization of your UVs for exporting models for 3D Color printing
Extras


Export all SubTool as one OBJ file
Clone all SubTools
Compare DM Small (http://www.pixologic.eu/preprint/documentation/compare_dm_big.jpg)



Click to enlarge - Model Courtesy of Epic Games






“I've really enjoyed working with the Pixologic team during the development of Decimation Master. The results are very clean, and the plug-in makes the process of getting models from ZBrush back into 3ds Max as painless as possible. I love the ability to process all SubTools at once, and then dump them all out into a single .obj file. Decimation Master is now an integral part our pipeline because it saves a lot of time, and allows us to process an insane amount of detail at a fraction of the original poly count.”
Shane Caudle, Technical Art Director, Epic Games

"I have been decimating everything today and taking it all into Mental Ray for renders, HOLY CRAP!!!
What a time saver!!! The masking rocks as well! I will most likely be using it this week for some 3D prints. I have only scratched the surface but this is going to be one of my favorites!!!"
Scott Patton - Lead Character Designer, Legacy Effects




"The Decimation Master plugin for ZBrush not only helped speed up production time, its results were of a consistently higher final output quality. The ability to mask areas and preserve resolution after decimation is nothing short of incredible!"
Brandon Fayette - Lead Artist, Bad Robot Productions






"If ZBrush is a rock factory, Decimation Master is the catapult: 2.000.000 points down to 100.000 without noticeable difference… You really have to press the wireframe button to believe it!"


"It was definitively the missing plugin in our previous production pipeline for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter; using Decimation Master now greatly improves quality and efficiency for our next games."
Vincent Delassus - Art Technical Director, Ubisoft Paris

"This works beautifully - the on-the-fly ability to adjust quality level works great and the resulting fidelity preservation is unbelievable! The Decimation Master is better than any reduction tool we've seen available with regard to details and speed; it grants the ability to efficiently work with any level of mesh density with precise control over quality."
Matt Vogt - Artist, Offload Studios Inc.




"This plugin is essential for rendering or printing in 3D. With this tool you can easily achieve the 250 MB file size requirement of 3D printers. Decimation Master makes it possible to freely work on your models with over 15 or even 20 million polygons for high resolution detailing, than transform the model to a medium or low resolution while retaining the same best-resolution details! In other words, you can convert 20 million polygons to 2 million. Decimation Master is an amazing tool!"
Alonso Varela - Green Apple Workshop.

"The Decimator is allowing us to work much more efficiently with ZBrush tools that have insanely high poly counts! The detail that we are able to maintain in the 3D printing process will yield some of the most amazing tactual 3d sculpts ever seen!"
Bill Henderson - Creative Director - Offload Studios Inc.
























Compare Damien Small (http://www.pixologic.eu/preprint/documentation/compare_damien_high.jpg)

Click to enlarge - Model Courtesy of Damien Canderle







DM Green 2 (http://www.pixologic.eu/preprint/documentation/dm_green_02_high.jpg) DM Green 1 (http://www.pixologic.eu/preprint/documentation/dm_green_01_high.jpg)

Click to enlarge - Models Courtesy of Apple Green Workshop







This plugin is available for WINDOWS

You can get it from the Download Center (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins/).
(The Mac version will be released within 30 days.)







:b3::b3: (http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Transpose_Master) Click Here to Download the Documentation (http://download.pixologic.com/Plugins/download.php?f=Decimation_Master_Documentation.pdf.zip) :b3::b3:






If you have any questions please post them in the Support forum here (http://forumdisplay.php?f=8). :)


Reference

To Install Decimation Master


Quit ZBrush
Extract the zip file to a temporary folder.
Copy the DecimationMaster.zsc to your ZPlugs folder. With a default installation, it will be found at C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3\ZStartup\ZPlugs.
Also copy the DecimationMasterData folder and its contents to the ZPlugs folder.
If needed, launch the vcredist_x86.exe (or vcredist_x64.exe for 64-bit versions of Windows). Both are included in the Troubleshoot Help folder of the plugin’s extracted archive.
Launch ZBrush.
Open the Zplugin palette. There you will find a Decimation menu, containing the new plugin’s features.
To Use Decimation Master

Set your options if needed.
If you have one ZTool, press the “Preprocess current” button to launch the optimization computing. If you want to optimize several SubTools at once, press the “Preprocess all” button.
When it’s done, choose a quality and press “Decimate” or “Decimate all”, depending of the previous step.
Happy ZBrushing!
The Pixologic Crew




3DPEIcon.jpg[/ATn]] (http://[ATn=141861)

[impertinent]

Thanks pixologic becouse been always developing this amazing software :tu:

[grassetti]

wow!! :eek:
Pixologic rule!!!

[Disco Stu]

Didnt even read the text yet just looked at the pictures and oh boy.....
this is amazing :o

[DAnconia]

Man you are all so smart!! I love you guys and gals at Pixologic!

[Disco Stu]

almost forgot..
eat this autodesk :lol: :lol: :lol:

[slocik]

It works .... surprisingly good, the result is a mess, but its hard to expect a good topology out of a script ;f Holds the forms really nice.

[TezZy]

wow! awesome plugins :tu:

[Disco Stu]

First impression after decimating a mesh.

Holy shiii this will make high poly model rendering so much fun.

The only missing link for a artist pipeline is a new file format that somehow
brings polypaint onto a unuved decimated mesh.

Whilst in reality cars will never fly zbrush is going at the speed of light.

Good job guys :) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Robert.B]

Thank you all mighty pixologic gods for answering our prayors!

[TyShelton]

This is absolutely awesome! Its going to be a huge help in our character pipeline!

[janhasse]

zbrush SUPERR SUPERR THE BEST

[davids]

this is just stunning! reeeeally stunning!... :eek:

[anyheart]

:D amazing tool,really like it very much~!!!!

[fluxist8070]

Fantastic! I can't wait to try this out!
thanks so much guys!

[McJak]

Cheers -this is gona be a great help!!

[mos-]

Wow !!!! Thanks A Lot Pixologic

[royalwin]

Brilliant!

[Moni-Poroni]

Wow another one. Thanks a lot! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Vsions]

you guys at pixologic are amazing:tu: :D

[cashfire]

Wow another plugn! This freakin rocks, you gotta love zbrush, with all these col plugin, it makes you wonder whats going to be in the new one when it comes out.

[UnitO]

Awesome!!! thanks!!!

[Avan-AMS]

got to try this rite now, bye bye poly cruncher?

[Pedro Toledo]

Oh god! Thank you so much!!!!

[DELTATHUND3R]

Amazing stuff.So many will be very happy.

[konjo kothar vignar]

heheh this is going to convert a lot of people to using triangles

[cmoffitt]

YES!!! I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time! Awesome job, Pixologic!

[threetails]

Wicked, this is wonderful news, astonishing work. oh, the things im going to do with this, look out.

[fabianloing]

THank youuu pixologiccc! this is awesomeee!!

cheersss guys!

fabian

[eldee.s]

This is actually really nice.. Now I can take my mesh with full detail into Topogun rather than a lower subD and worry about reprojecting in ZBrush. I'm sure the guys who do scans all the time are also very happy about this heh

[brettSinclair]

OMG! This is fantasic! What a surprise. Wake up turn on pc. Bam! Presents! Awesome!

[scottleroc]

THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC, THANK YOU PIXOLOGIC,

The PAIN of baking textures is now eased and that makes the pipeline soooo much less painful now

now we will have to redo all the characters for our current game :D

[goldo_O]

Another life-changing plug-in! Thanks a lot Pixologic!:tu::tu::tu:

[campi]

Has anyone had any luck getting this to work with triangulated Meshes ? The Task just crashes immediately (not Zbrush itself but the decimation program that is running as a seperate task)


thx

[Etcher]

Pixologic Rules! Thank you! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

Thank you for this.

[spacemonkey]

w1n! :)

This is why we continue to use Zbrush in our art pipeline, fantastic release guys

[dustbin1_uk]

WOW!!! Your programming skills make my head hurt!!

I wondered if this would be a feature added to ZB4 but now I wonder what surprises are in store now!! I mean every time I think it can't get better, it does!! ;)

Props to you Pixologic!! this is one of the best plug-ins yet!! Well done!!!

[Vidar]

Totally awesome! Lifesaving plugin, for sure :D

[mutte696]

Damn Pixologic, I love you guys can't wait to try this. Keep it up ladies and gentlemen, the holy grail is near. :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[The Namek]

Brilliant , models load and render so fast in cinema4d now. Thanks a bunch.

[Captain Sensible]

Awesome. Looking forward to the mac version.

[JakobJK]

Holy! This is crazy cool! :).. great release guys! big thumbs up!

[nellement]

wooow awesomeeeee

[Trurl]

Nice.
Thanks Pixologic Team!

[Frenchy Pilou]

...hit! :tu:

[Bas Mazur]

Can't wait to use it, great job!

[~mindrot~]

OOH!!! This is gonna be really helpful :D

Thanks.

~M~

[Chamelion]

Cool!!!

[Frenchy Pilou]

..real! :cool:

[3mm]

great plugin,it make our lives a lot easier:tu::tu::rolleyes:

[Mind Symbion]

Amazing plugin!
I'm really impressed!!!

[smileman]

Yes or maybe will be a Mac plugin like this in the future ? :p

[Totyo]

Yes or maybe will be a Mac plugin like this in the future ? :pThe information is provided just below the download link on the first post of this thread: "The Mac version will be released within 30 days."
Same answer for 3D Print Exporter :)

[SS810]

This looks fantastic !

But how does this work for exporting low poly models for 3d printing ?

Surely a 3d printer can only print actual geometry, or are there printers now that print from bump or displacement maps ?

Please can you post more info.

[The Namek]

This looks fantastic !

But how does this work for exporting low poly models for 3d printing ?

Surely a 3d printer can only print actual geometry, or are there printers now that print from bump or displacement maps ?

Please can you post more info.have you tried it out? , it converts your model into an optimized mesh of triangles. It is actual geometry.

[calico1]

Thanks Pixologic! I can't wait to put this to use.

[SS810]

No I haven't tried this plug in out.

But I remember having a model printed a couple of years ago when the tech guy optimized my high poly quad model without telling me.
I couldn't work out why the print had lots of faceted irregular shaped triangles and rounded edges and corners where there had used to be detail !

[undoz]

Awesome! I was using third party solutions before, so this is going to be very handy.
Thanks Pixologic!

[lemonnado]

Great! Works like a charm and is a good copy protection/edit proofing as well. Once reduced, nobody can edit that result without converting it into a heap of garbage. Excellent! Thanks so much!
Lemo

[Pavel Petrenko]

Great! Thanks Pixologic! :tu:

[Intervain]

the resulting mesh is a mess but damn impressive effect - I reduced my mesh by 90% and it still looked identical to the high-res version. Great tool for rendering high res meshes:tu::cool:

[aurick]

No I haven't tried this plug in out.

But I remember having a model printed a couple of years ago when the tech guy optimized my high poly quad model without telling me.
I couldn't work out why the print had lots of faceted irregular shaped triangles and rounded edges and corners where there had used to be detail !
Now YOU can optimize the high poly quad model yourself. Not only does Decimation Master do a remarkable job of keeping detail at low polygon counts, but you can also use masks to tell ZBrush which details on the model are the most important. No more nasty surprises from the printer. :)

[Stephenrminkin]

This tools has already stream lined my work-flow considerably. No longer do I have to export large chunks of obj information out to be optimized in 3ds Max. Thank you so much Pixologic. :tu:

[spaz8]

This looks great, can't wait to play with this at work. Looking forward to the OSX releases!

[SS810]

Wow, That does sound good. Thanks for the info.
I look forward to trying it out.

[Slice]

OH MY GOD my life just got so much better XD,
you guys deserve a prize because you are changing the world of 3d for the better, btw when exporting the subtools to an obj format it doesnt put the .obj extension behind the name of the file (so dont forget to put .obj behind it yourself when you have exported the subtools!

[nickz]

Thank you so much! This was something I had on my wish list! I could have used this like 3 days ago, but I will make sure to make use of it in the future! You guys rock!!!!!!

[tommy3d]

I Thank you very much great work :cool:

[Mr.Storm]

Is there a MAC version in the works?
Forgive me if someone already asked.

-peace

[Halduke]

Thanks, great plugin, completly necessary. Ill give it a try.

[YONA]

It's going to change my life!!!
thank you so much for this brilliant plug!!!

[Lucky_1]

Thank you very much Team Pixologic, seems hard to believe :tu:

Cheers

[sandpiper]

absolute perfect timing. I'm about to use this on my current project! :)

THANK YOU.

[manzarek123]

Really?, really a plugin that reduce the number of polys without decrease the detail?!!! WOOOOW, im stunning! im happy im excited haha :D thank you so much Pixologic for make this powerful plugin, really AMAZING!

[wolfsoull]

great tool!!! thanks

[rsalonen]

Great plugin!

I just gave this a quick try, took a 2 mil poly to 300k. However what I don't get is why the viewport lag when I spin the optimized model around but not with the 2 mil polygon one? Shouldn't a 300k poly slow down the viewport far less and not oposite?
Am I doing something wrong here?

[Thomas Mahler]

I. Love. You.

[RockinAkin]

Pixologic ROCKS! :tu:

[ISK-86]

INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE, INFINITE.....


THANKS for this plugin!!! now I wont have to jump into meshlab or 3dsmax

:tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu:

This is why you are the lead industry

[lemonnado]

the resulting mesh is a mess but damn impressive effect - I reduced my mesh by 90% and it still looked identical to the high-res version. Great tool for rendering high res meshes:tu::cool:

But don't forget.... It's useless if you want to animate your object. Static only!
Rainer

[threetails]

i just used this plugin, i took in a 10 mil model, and got it down 700,000 the detail was great i have exported it with the 3d print exporter and opend it in other aplications. what a great plugin. its saved me several days work and illiminated the need for a crazy amount of other apps. i love it already.

[Svengali]

decimating model AND UVs in perfect registration. Impressive.

Sven

[haamu]

Quite interesting, but I was hoping it would contain some sort of automatic quadrilateration like in 3D-coat. Would have helped freeform modeling enormously. Of course it's meant only for porting, but still I feel they stopped a bit short.

[maxinkuk]

Oh man, this is fantastic! I say well done Pixologic today.

[gelfling status]

This is amazing and great for production! Thank you:cool:

[daddymack]

thud... Jaw hits floor

Brilliant work guys!.. Congratulations
:tu::tu:

[vine]

Hrmm, am I missing something. It sounds like some people are getting their UV's preserved. I've tried four models in the 4-5 million poly range (reducing down to (~450k to 550k) and none are preserving UV's.

Also, I'm noticing considerable slow down of the optimized meshes when navigating compared to the high poly meshes. Is this due to have an all triangle mesh after optimizing?

EDIT: Not sure why the Keep UV option wasn't working. Restarting Zbrush a few times and trying again made it start working for some reason. My UVs are now being preserved correctly.

[KHALLUS]

What a wonderful surprise,this works so well for me with my copy of cinema 4d,exported and baked a texture there and all the uv's were preserved as well as high details..smashing stuff,,,honestly this plugin and a free zbrush 4 is the best thing to happen during the recession :)

[Aumakua]

That's a real life saver tool! Thank you so much guys! Can't imagine what Z4 will have under the hood! :cool:

[DDS]

thanks guys! hands down :)

[konjo kothar vignar]

i honestly think that this plugin alone will seriously change the workflow of mannnnnyyyy people. im going to start telling people that im going to decimate their face. im gona experiment with this all night after work. somebody please show me decimated models please!!


http://www.youtube.com/user/konjothegreat

[upham]

Hey wonderful plugin Olaf! This puts ZBrush well ahead of the competition!

Upham :)

[Revanto]

I love how it respects symmetry cos Lightwave doesn't when it comes to decimating meshes. Pity, it doesn't come with a quad polygon reduction option cos it would be a good way of get a low poly version of your model to work with without retopologising everything. You'd still need to edit the low poly mesh but at least the process would be shorter.

Oh, Man, if they also come out with a mesh unification plugin as well, I'll be set for a while. :cool:

Revanto :p

Edit: OK, I just found the first flaws. I tried to decimate a 980k mesh down to just 9k but instead of 9k the mesh came out at 18k despite the specific 9k setting at pre-decimation. Also, there should be an option to make a decimated clone or at least have a warning that your CURRENT mesh will be decimated. I would rather not lose my current mesh so a clone option would be nice.

[gabo1991]

Revanto

There is a Clone All Subtools that has been added the Tool Palette. Is this what you were looking for? This was added with this plug-in.

Paul

[Norman3D]

Amazing!!!! :tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu:

[Kupo]

this is genius...great job man:tu:

[Marcus Dublin]

This plugin is a god send! Thanks to the good folks at pixologic for making this.:D

[Jorge Lescale]

wow guys i just tested it!..its freaking amazing!! thanx a lot!

[martin.s]

question

would decimated meshes being driven by wraps be a simplified and or lighter way to get "that" level of detail? Will a decimated mesh deform at all, and if so, how comparable to the equivalent mesh+disp-map type, say rendered in maya mental ray?

[SolidSnakexxx]

Very very cool! :tu: :tu:

[jaggudada]

from the bottom of my heart

[cresshead]

just tried out the decimate plugin, it gives excelent results.
thank you pixologic!:tu:

[Hurricks]

Thank you so very very much!!!!!!!!! I'm delighted with the new plug-in. Tried it this morning and it has worked really well. You're going to make my life so much easier and my models so much better quality as everything I do has to be exported into Rhino V4.

[boblenain]

Yesssssss! This is the plugin I was waiting for since a long long time!!!

[TVeyes]

Nooo ! After years of learning how to model with quads only I am now triangulating all my models....and loving it. I am so confused right now.

;)

Very nice plugin. Thank you very much Pixologic :tu:

[calum5ZB]

Thanks you amazing people very much!

[Fabricio Torres]

Fantastic plugin and an extraordinary addition to any serious workflow
I`m already using it and loving it.

Thanks programmers :)

[antisymmetry]

Wow! I just peed my pants!

[jaxxx irons]

and for mac? tested in my job with windows and works amazing , but for mac?:cry::(:(:( for where?

[cresshead]

and for mac? tested in my job with windows and works amazing , but for mac?:cry::(:(:( for where?if you read the press release you'd know it's up for release on osx in around 30days

[Revanto]

Revanto

There is a Clone All Subtools that has been added the Tool Palette. Is this what you were looking for? This was added with this plug-in.

Paul
That's not the point. Of course you could use a cloning plugin or technique but by having it as part of the decimation workflow when you use the plugin so that people don't accidently permanently decimate their hard work. There should either be a compulsory warning that pops up before decimation or it automatically makes the new decimated version into a new tool just like when you use the unifed skin tool, for example.
It's basically a safety feature that should be part of the plugin.

Rev.

[konjo kothar vignar]

ehh.. its like .. makepolymesh 3d. just save your work before you decimate , appreciate the goodness, and dont complain about your own laziness :) 'so that people don't accidently permanently decimate their hard work' theres thousands of ways for someone new to zbrush to make it crash.. save your work often, and def. before decimating. and oh yea... you can undu decimations..

http://www.youtube.com/user/konjothegreat

[Ballo]

fantastic plug to move high meshes with millions of polys between apps. Thanks pixologic to make me happy.:D

[MartonDemetrius]

This come to me like a God gift!!! :eek:
THANKS!!!!!!!

[bokaja]

Finally - no more 3rd part applications on this process - and the fact it keeps the UVs is EPIC SUCCESS!

Great job guys! :tu:

[salman3dartist]

I save the plugin in C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3\ZStartup\ZPlugs...with the documentation folder and launch the zbrush ..but i am not getting the DECIMATION MASTER in plugin menu...i am using zbrush 3.1...and window xp...plz...help../..and i tried twice after lauch vcredist_x86.exe (or vcredist_x64.exe for 64-bit versions of Windows...wht shud i do.....



Thanx to ZBrush guyz....

[d2008riddle]

Just in time, my school has a modeling competition, the winner has a model printed for free. I'm already testing the decimation master with great results I have a 12 million poly sculpture down to 1.2 million in Maya. Thanks

[adrock]

Glad to see this one coming....awesome work as always! :rolleyes:

[Totyo]

salman3dartist: what happens if you manually load the .zsc file "DecimationMaster.zsc" that you copied in the ZStartup/ZPlugs folder by going in the ZScript Menu > Load?

[calum5ZB]

If you didnt clone your tool before decimation and dont like the results,just undo on the edit tab!Model returns to original state.Then try a different % and no need to preproccess.(worked for me)

[salman3dartist]

It shows an ERROR: ZScript Note: The ZDecimation master plugincould not be found.

[Slice]

edit:nevermind

[Totyo]

calum5ZB: Yes, exactly. you just need to pre process once. When it's done, you can change the decimation sliders as you want, decimate, change again and decimate again as you need.

salman3dartist: you should have in your ZBrush/ZStartup/Zplugs the zsc file and one folder DecimationMaster data with several files inside.
Your error message maks me think of a wrong install.

[electricCAT]

MAC version coming... ha! Still waiting for ZApplink on the Mac and a fix for Transpose Master on the MAC. Suppose I should just Buy a new PC and forget about the Mac like everyone else does.

Grrrrrr....

[salman3dartist]

Its Done.....Thank you zbrush ....

[womball]

I can't get the plugin to be recognized by zbrush. Its says the Decimator plugin could not be found, when I try to load the plugin via zscript. The plugin is located in both my zdata/zplugin folder and my zstartup/zplugin folder. Its not showing up on the plugin area either.

I'm running Vista 64.

[Totyo]

womball: you just need to install it in the ZStartup/ZPlug folder, not in another folder. Please keep the hierarchy you have in the zip folder too. You should have a zsc file and at the same level, a folder "DecimationMasterData" with three files inside.
Don't move these three files outside of the data folder.

[womball]

So keep everything zipped?

[Totyo]

No, unzip :)
You should have a folder, open it, inside, you have three elements: a read me file, a .zsc fil and a folder. Copy the .zsc file and the folder in the ZBrush 3/ZStartup/Zplugs folder and it should work :)

[DanasArt]

Great plug in. I can use this a lot. It does a great job at doing what it does. :)

[sephirothsinic]

Sweet adios to all those other parasite programs from my drive!!! and also IT CAN BE UNDONE!! Ctrl+Z magic!!! tht's poetry!

[gpepper]

YEAH ! The plugin for us guys who sometime want to render their ZB sculpt without doing the displace thing !
A great thing for still images !

[florencepapillon]

Like always happens we Mac users are always left behind ... :mad:

[Webhead]

Like always happens we Mac users are always left behind ... :mad:
Yeah, but not with GoZBrush anyway. We get that first. At least it's only a 30 day wait for Decimation, and 3D print Exporter. Anyway, that's what they're announcing. It all sounds too dang good - hope they can deliver.

[eldee.s]

Like always happens we Mac users are always left behind ... :mad:boo hoo, poor mac users with their updated version of zbrush (3.12) and 3 month lead on GoZ. You guys sure have it rough :( :(

[KHALLUS]

Decimation is very cool and I cant wait to try out GoZ,..One question bugs me tho Mac users,,Before you even got a twinkle in your eye to get a Mac,you must have done a little research about software,learn the pros and cons of owning any system,and found that not everything under the sun is released for the mac or in some cases not at all by some companies? wasnt this since like the 80's? isnt the Mac community used to this and being a bit patient for a Mac release?Dont worry Mac usere I still love ya all,just dont forget to smile a bit more.:)

[Webhead]

Can't we all just get along?

Mac and PC.jpg

[vedanta]

Pixologic = functioning from a higher order of Intelligence....
......what galaxy are you guys really from.?......:D:D:D

[Revanto]

ehh.. its like .. makepolymesh 3d. just save your work before you decimate , appreciate the goodness, and dont complain about your own laziness :) 'so that people don't accidently permanently decimate their hard work' theres thousands of ways for someone new to zbrush to make it crash.. save your work often, and def. before decimating. and oh yea... you can undu decimations..
It's not about being lazy. It's damage control. It's about someone potentially losing a lot of hard work because they may be too caught up in the work to realise that they've over-written something crucial. It's not as if I don't appreciate this plugin. It's awesome. But, by adding a precautionary system such as a simple warning, for example, you could save a lot of time and frustration especially in something like a commercial situation where losing time means losing money and adding stress onto the artist.

Rev.

[BARON_3D]

Great Great Great Plugin Thank you so much. :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[MAN9A]

A great great!! pluggin. Awesome Pixologic.
This tool optimizes the 3D developing pipeline.

Congratulations and thanks a lot!!

[kaisasose]

Awesome stuff Pixologic!!


And Revanto...

It's not about being lazy. It's damage control. It's about someone potentially losing a lot of hard work because they may be too caught up in the work to realise that they've over-written something crucial. It's not as if I don't appreciate this plugin. It's awesome. But, by adding a precautionary system such as a simple warning, for example, you could save a lot of time and frustration especially in something like a commercial situation where losing time means losing money and adding stress onto the artist.

Rev.Please press control Z.

[lonrot]

Hey guys how can I preserve the existing MRGB during the process?

[hal8999]

Thank you to all ZBrush team, this plug-in is amazing!
I like it very much Decimation Master :D is the best tool of decimation that I've seen, better then more decimation/optimization professional tools of high-level softwares.
Really compliments and many thanks for this gift, or better, for this piece of art. One day I will to repay this magnanimity with a project of free sharing of 3D libraries (scanned object, re-drawed and refined with ZBrush, freely downlodable and ready to use for all ZBrusher). I hope to do this in a not-so-far future... and with the help of Deciomation Master, obviously.

Keep up your great work,
a fanatic of ZBrush experience ;)
Mattia

[nexusbird]

So am i right in thinking you dont need to render out displacment maps and normal maps now, you can just reduce the polycount then just import that isnt your external 3d application and shoot off a render?

[konjo kothar vignar]

nexusbird- i would personally agree that is a great method.. and i think texturing and animating the new reduced and triangulated mesh would also work very well

[goast666]

Alright...so Zbrush can calculate a crazy reduction and make it look good (I just took 2mill to 200k and I can't tell the difference). Now...can it do a damn boolean? Yes, I'm lazy...I'm just thinking...if I can crush the mesh, why not crush the mesh, then boolean the meshes. Then I don't have to worry about raycasted normal tangents hitting the inner penetrating parts of a belt, a watch, a shirt....you see where I am going with this. But then again. Maybe I should try taking a couple of different Deciminated meshes and using XSI, MAX or Maya and see if I can't get a boolean out of it.

Hmmm...wheels are turning.

[hal8999]

Hello,
I've done a quick test with the great tool "Decimation Master", using three scanned object with a Laser Scanner.
I'm very satisfied of this new Plug-in of ZBrush: it works perfectly, without problem and/or crash. And it is very fast to calculate the new poly density.
Here below you can see a decimation of three meshes with high density of polygons (obtained from 3D scans).

Now my "Still life with Fly" ;) is ready to be converted as a 3D .pdf file (please, look at this Wiki Gallery http://www.david-laserscanner.com/wiki/david_laserscanner_multimedia_gallery, Hal's Gallery).

Thanks to all,
Cheers,
Mattia

[nexusbird]

Could anyone confirm my theory? btw hats off to the Zbrush team and the people involved in creating this plugin, its like great updates that are useful without paying the price again.

Just wondering why they dont take this further for displacments, i know there already is a displacment and normal etc generator in zbrush, but combinding this to reduce the mesh, plus generating a displacment map inside zbrush that is already applied with say its own material and settings adjusted for you, then export that obj with the material, then when you import it into your external 3d application everything is set up :P, as i only just figured out how to get my displacments to show up in 3dsmax after a year of searching and attempting haha.

[fcm420]

Hey NExusbird, check out the GoZbrush post ,
that plugin will introduce an automated pipeline for your displacements etc..
setting up appropriate shader channels etc for you.

hope that tickles your fancy ;) it sure does mine.


mad love to pixologic.. the company who puts out amazing software and for some reason gives it away to existing customers..
(one wonders how they bend financial reality )

are you all living off of hot pockets and donated clothing?

good souls you all are ;) I'll donate a lunch if yas ever need one hehe

[nexusbird]

thanks fcm ill check that out, and yeah zbrush are the first company that cares about its customers and not the money, especially with the credit cruntch :) so big thanks.

[The Cheshire Cat]

AWESOME stuff. THANK YOU Pixologic!

[Navstar]

Looks amazing. Now... Mac version? ;)

[Paladin69]

Apparently it can't finish the the pre-processing phase if I have sub-tools that share the same name. Since that is the case in how it thinks, it would be very useful if "pre-process all" included the ability to auto-rename if it finds more than one sub-tool that matches.

I am sometimes working on a different subtool when I save to overwrite an existing .ztl file. I assume this is how I acquire identical names?... Otherwise, is there a zscript that can already auto-rename subtools out there?

Other than that what a fabulous tool. No more having to screw with polygon cruncher and blue's batch importer. This also does a much better job crunching. Poly Cruncher has gone down hill and seems to get worse with each new version, lots of overlapping triangles causing dark spots. I also can't reduce nearly as well with Poly Cruncher as I now can with Decimation Master. It looks damn near perfect at much lower tri counts.

I was thinking I'd have to upgrade once again from 8GB of ram to 16GB or higher so I can get all my detail into another app. This will save me money on needing a new board that can handle more ram now. Thanks Pixologic.

[Greg Petchkovsky]

Great stuff!
The documentation mentions temporary "progressive meshes". Could anyone tell me where these are stored?

Thanks!

[neilford]

Any chance that Decimation Master will output quads in the future?

neilford

[Soulrunner66]

Any love for the Mac userbase? *tear* This looks amazing, thank you guys.

Would love to see it for mac though. : D

[jaystein777]

This plugin seems cool, and I'm sure I'll find a use for it , but for right now I'm better off using the subdivision approximation methods, I like to build the shaderssss..........

[Webhead]

Fear not Navstar, Soulrunner66, and other Macophiles: The MAC version is supposed be out in less than a month.

[Ustos]

:idea: and what with Vista... ?
when this amazing plugin will work with this system?

[konjo kothar vignar]

ustos----i have windows vista and the plugin works perfectly
http://www.youtube.com/user/konjothegreat

[Ustos]

ought,,,
sry.. i didn't read all the documentation...
all fine. :D

[slickytom]

Does anyone know how the decimation master works on imported models composed of triangles, such as a lidar scan?

Will it bring in a triangulated obj and reduce the poly amount?

[DanasArt]

I'm sure you could. I have used the plug-in once and had to bring it down in poly count more and it goes even further down. The second time it had only triangles.

[sephirothsinic]

Sure u can u can decimate further and further down... actually the details are better preserved if u give it 2 or 3 passes

[John Strieder]

Great! Thank you, Pixologic! :D

I've bought some months ago a plug-in for this purpose which cost 100 € and it was a unuseable piece of :mad:

[sephirothsinic]

download meshlab is free if u need a standalone :D

[aurick]

As part of our ongoing efforts to make ZBrush's features even more accessible, we've put together a great tutorial movie that introduces you to what Decimation Master is and how to use it effectively. For those of you who have already read the documentation, this movie provides an excellent supplement. And of course, for anyone who's still wondering just what Decimation Master is, well there's nothing better than seeing it in action!



DMMovieImage.jpg



In fact, we've gone better than just putting together a movie! We've gone and created a full informational page that explains this powerful plugin. So you can watch the movie, get the documentation, and download the plugin all in one convenient location:



:b3: :b3: :b3: www.DecimationMaster.com (http://www.decimationmaster.com) :b3: :b3: :b3:




To find the movie and other downloads, just scroll down the page to here:



DMMovieLink.jpg



Enjoy the new stuff! And even more important, enjoy this great plugin! We hope that it will make it easier than ever to use ZBrush in your creations!

Happy ZBrushing! :)



DMMovieIcon.jpg

[Svengali]

Excellent tutorial for an amazing plugin. Well done.

[Totyo]

And a big thank you to Damien Canderle, well known as Maddam here at ZBC for providing us his great model! :tu:

[Moni-Poroni]

I clicked three times on "play" before I realized it´s just a picture..:) then I saw the UNMISSABLE link. Yep -- reading helps! *grin*
Thanks a lot or the tutorial -- it´s fantastic! Although I haven´t made use of the DM-Plugin to date I know now how it works. Great explanation -- no questions left.

[Reaversword]

Impressive. For show sessions to our customers in our 3d software in high detail. Usefull. Great.

[skulll_monster]

i dont have access to video ise there any problem ?

[Eraserhead]

I'm not sure if anyone else has had this problem but I have a piece of scan data thats around 1.5 million and when I try to decimate it, Zbrush crashes toward the end of the preprocess stage. Any help appreciated.

[Bas Mazur]

Can't wait to use this wonderful plugin!

[chk2033]

I love this plugin, makes things so much simplier.
and you can decimate it more than one time,
Very simple to use plugin , took my 50mb prop down to around 800k :D
great job guys!

[skdzines]

So if you want to rig and animate your model, using a decimated model is not the way to go?

[eldee.s]

you would never rig and animate a decimated model.

HOWEVER- decimation is pretty awesome if you're taking your high res mesh into another app to retopologize it (because zbrush absolutely sucks at retopo). In this scenario, you can retopo your high res sculpt, generate a displacement map/normal map based on the difference between the two meshes (using xnormal or ultimapper), and then rig and animate your low res mesh.

So either way, decimation master is one of my favorite new toys.

[robinmitra1]

cant download decimation master..when i click on the link http://download.pixologic.com/Plugins/download.php?f=Decimation_Master_1.0.zip server gives this error: This server can only be accessed by the proper referring server. :cry:

[aurick]

Don't copy the link and paste it into your browser. Go to the Download Center and actually click the Download button for the plugin. Anything else (including using a download accelerator) will not work.

[robinmitra1]

Thanks for the reply..I wasnt copying and pasting the link into the location bar, I was just clicking on the download button. I posted the link just to indicate that I was clicking the correct link....Now got it sorted though, instead of clicking on the link, I right clicked and saved the link instead and now it worked..thanks

[luismmolina]

We are still waiting the mac version of this amazing plugin, has been more than 30 days...... :rolleyes:

[Richard Marklew]

We are still waiting the mac version of this amazing plugin, has been more than 30 days...... :rolleyes:
The Mac version has now been posted in the download centre. All we need now is the right version of ZBrush. Says it's for ZBrush 3.2

Richard

[Neox]

cant download decimation master..when i click on the link http://download.pixologic.com/Plugins/download.php?f=Decimation_Master_1.0.zip server gives this error: This server can only be accessed by the proper referring server. :cry:same problem here with the latest firefox, but works with opera

[radn]

I download Decimation Master for mac 3.2 and when I put to the Zplugs and start Zbrush 3.2 the Decimation Master plugin doesn't show up. but all plugin show in Zbrush, except Decimation Master.

[Totyo]

radn: do you have at the root of your ZStartup/Zplugs folder the decimationmaster zsc file and the decimationmasterdata folder and all its content?

Your problem looks like a problem at the installation.

[radn]

yeah, I have follow the instruction, but another plugins just work fine like: trans master, etc... just this Decimation Master doesn't show up...

[Totyo]

Try to do a fresh install: go in your ZBrush 3.2 OSX folder, find the ZStartup/Zplugins folder and copy the -content- of the "DecimationMasterMacV1.1" folder in it.
The you should have :

Application/ZBrushOSX 3.2/ZStartup/Zplugs/DecimationMasterMacV1.1.zsc
Application/ZBrushOSX 3.2/ZStartup/Zplugs/DecimationMasterDataMacV1.1/DecimationMasterDLL.lib
Application/ZBrushOSX 3.2/ZStartup/Zplugs/DecimationMasterDataMacV1.1/DecimationMasterApp

[Maxxi]

Hi,

I use Decimation and it's working fine on my PC (vista 64bits, quad core, RAM 8 GB).
I just finished a new model huge in polys (11000K polys). So I decided to use Decimation to lower to 4000K polys, wich is working fine, except if I use "keep uvs". I have got an error message saying "Not enought memory for...zmesh "

So I can't keep my uvs on my model. I know Zbrush can't use my 8GB as it's a 32 bits software but is there a way to save memory in zbrush in order to keep the uvs?

Thanks
Olivier

[Eraserhead]

Any news on decimation master being released for zb 3.5? I'm still using 3.1 at work only because it works with that version.

[cresshead]

Any news on decimation master being released for zb 3.5? I'm still using 3.1 at work only because it works with that version.for the moment i save the obj from 3.5r2, open back in 3.1 and then re genderate the sub d's and then use decimation master for exporting.

[Richard Marklew]

Any news on decimation master being released for zb 3.5? I'm still using 3.1 at work only because it works with that version.
I'm sure there will be an announcement and singing from the hilltops when it's released. As for when, the ones who do know are not going to say so until its released and any other dates are just pure uninformed speculation.

Richard

[evilkoolade]

i followed dierections to the letter but decimation master will not show up in the Zplugin palette so i tried renaming everything to the names that apear in the rtf still nothing whats going on never had any trouble with a plug-in before

p.s. i'm running windows vista 64bit on a corei7 pc with gigs of ram

[Neox]

i followed dierections to the letter but decimation master will not show up in the Zplugin palette so i tried renaming everything to the names that apear in the rtf still nothing whats going on never had any trouble with a plug-in before

p.s. i'm running windows vista 64bit on a corei7 pc with gigs of ram
and you are using 3.1?

[evilkoolade]

yes

[Totyo]

Please, delete the Decimation Master files you renamed. They musn't be renamed at all.

Then download it again from Pixologic.com / Download Center.
Unzip the zip file.
You should have a Decimation master folder which include a zsc file and a data folder.
Copy these two elements in the ZStartup/Zplugs folder -and not- in the ZData/ZPlugs folder.
Start ZBrush.

[evilkoolade]

Please, delete the Decimation Master files you renamed. They musn't be renamed at all.


Then download it again from Pixologic.com / Download Center.
Unzip the zip file.
You should have a Decimation master folder which include a zsc file and a data folder.
Copy these two elements in the ZStartup/Zplugs folder -and not- in the ZData/ZPlugs folder.
Start ZBrush.

i swear i did that already before the rename but it worked this time thanks a heap

[digitalmind]

Hey people:
Anyone does know anything about a decimation master version for zbrush3.5?:o

[Frozan]

man i really need decimation master for 3.5

[CorDox]

Still no news on an update for 3.5? Or other plugins for that matter...

[TheSnap]

Hi there,

I was really tensed, what will happen, if I would try this new plug.

So I loaded it, put the extracted data in my ZPlugs folder and found it at the right place.

So, I modeled a bit and then I tried to start decimation master.

When I start pre-processing, there appears data in the Decimation Data folder, and the computer starts working.

But it does´nt stop any more.

I tried a really small model, and I tried the demo soldier, as it is recommended here, both show the same effect.

I can stop this process, if I go to the programme-interrupt. I just have to open this finder-tool, and ZB seems to be o.k., and after that, the computing in Decimation Master stops and ZB is ready for work again. But nothing has happened.

Any idea?

I´m working with MacPro, OSX 10.5.6, 8GB RAM, so this is not the smallest one...

Greetings,

Stephan

[Totyo]

Pick the default polysphere, open Decimation Master, don't modify the options, click on preprocess current and if the preprcessing is done, switch to polyframe mode (Shift+F) and press Decimaten Current.
What happen?

[TheSnap]

Hi Totyo,

I just tried it with a easy form, it happens the same:

in the left upper corner I can see »File exported. Time 0.001 secs« and in the Decimation Master Data-folder there appears a file called »config001.zdc« and »config001.zdc.running«

Could it be, that the decimation process needs a lot of time??

Thanks,

Stephan

[TheSnap]

Though I loaded Decimation Master for several times, it works just now, because I loaded it with Safari and not with Firefox.

Curious thing...

[jfrancis]

I used it on my 32-bit 4 gig RAM Windows machine and it worked great.

Until I upgraded to ZBrush 3.5

Now I'm hooked and going through Decimation Master withdrawal.

I tried MeshLab (free open source) but even moderate-sized models crash it. I don't know how you guys handled the memory so well, but come back with a 3.5 version! We miss you!

[boutzo]

When I install the decimation master script and start zbrush my decimation master zsc file gets truncated from the downloaded 87kb to 38kb and the plug wont load. In the script file all that comes up is SRBZ. I'm running zbrush 3.1 and the files are in the correct folder (program files/zbrush3/zstartup/zplugs). All other plugs work except this one. Is there some sort of conflict going on? I'm not a noob at this and I cannot believe i'm the only one with this problem. Any help would be apprieciated. Also have the 2005 redist and also the 2008 redist installed. I'm at a loss.

[gabo1991]

When I install the decimation master script and start zbrush my decimation master zsc file gets truncated from the downloaded 87kb to 38kb and the plug wont load. In the script file all that comes up is SRBZ. I'm running zbrush 3.1 and the files are in the correct folder (program files/zbrush3/zstartup/zplugs). All other plugs work except this one. Is there some sort of conflict going on? I'm not a noob at this and I cannot believe i'm the only one with this problem. Any help would be apprieciated. Also have the 2005 redist and also the 2008 redist installed. I'm at a loss.Did you download the Decimation Master from the Download page? If you did that will only work with ZBrush3.5R3.

paul

[BINMEN]

where i can download decimation master for ZB3.1 then..
e*: scratch that. found it

[goilo]

where i can download decimation master for ZB3.1 then..
e*: scratch that. found it
Well, that's great... but where did you find it? I've been going nuts trying to get the plugin to work only to read above that it works for ZB3.5 and I have 3.1..... grrr

[Asyme]

Small question...

Tried running the 3.5r3 version and after the pre-decimation tried exporting the model. Ended up with a 1kb file when I did an export all subtools. Anyone had this and know why/what I'm doing wrong? Never remember having this problem in 3.1

[Totyo]

A problem has been found in the Export All function. An update of Decimation Master which fix the bug will be available soon.

[Monophobe]

Does the current version work with 3.5r2?

I assume our license here allows us to get r3 but I'll have to bug the IT guy about that.

[Gareee]

A problem has been found in the Export All function. An update of Decimation Master which fix the bug will be available soon.
Coolies!

[Ryon]

I'm running ZBrush 3.5R3 and I can't seem to get Decimation Master working even if i have tried reinstalling both of the programs. I did excatly as said on Pixologic's homepage but Decimation Master won't just appear in the zplugin panel.

[Thomas Mahler]

This plugin keeps amazing me, ****ing incredible stuff.

[aurick]

An update to the PC version of Decimation Master has been made available for users of ZBrush 3.5R3. If you have encountered issues with the release of Decimation Master that is included in the 3.5R3 installation, please do the following:

1) Run ZBrush's installer (which can be accessed from the "Remove Programs" list in your Windows Control Panel) and choose the Modify option. Deselect Decimation Master from the list and then complete the modification. This will uninstall the older release of Decimation Master.

2) Download and install the updated release which may be found here: http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins/ (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins/)

Please note that this is only necessary if you have had issues with Decimation Master.

Happy ZBrushing!

[manzarek123]

Thank you so much aurick, now it works perfect! i exported a model to Maya, and it works so good.

[Faber Draconis]

When I start to preprocess a 7M Mesh in DecimationMaster screen freezes after some time (made between 3% and 25%). Cores are still stressed to roundabout 70% of max, but after sth like 2 minutes ZBrush gets those nasty blue little circle from Win7 and stops working.
I installed version 1.13, but no change.
Any tips to help me will be appreciated.

System: 64 bit,
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz,
8 GB Ram
GForce 8800 GTS (640 MB Ram)

[Totyo]

Just wait a little bit.
This "error" screen of Windows 7 happen when the CPU is at their full process and that the software is not responding. You can have the same effect in other softwares. it's not a crash, it's just Windows which is working like that.

Just wait a little bit, 2 min to wait for a preprocess is not too long, it can takes eventually 5 minutes.

[Faber Draconis]

thx 4 fast response

Hmm, 4hours of waiting should make clear, theres no progress any more, particularly because the cores are idle after 2 minutes.
(I´m monitoring the stress of my cores.)
I´d tried the whole day now roughly 6 times, between 4h and 20 minutes - every try ending with a crash.

Maybe its sth special with my model and I have to get again 40 h in sculpting.
Lil bit frustrating : I´ve ZBrush for 10 weeks now, it´s my 4th try to finish a model and everytime there´s sth stopping me.
But enough self pity ;)

So, the purpose behind it was to get less polygons to use TopoGun. ZBrush with it´s 15k polyrestriction is not useful in this case. Unluckily I´d used DecMaster earlyer in the process, but found out way later, that it kills the divisionhistory, so that way to get less polys fails :/
So maybe there are other suggestions to get new topology?
I´d tried the way to remesh and extract all for 4 hours now, but no matter how I adjust the sliders, there´s no satisfactory result.
I even get some funny thruster at my dragon ^^
I created it with ZSketch and made an adaptive skin. Ah, maybe I should remark, that SymAxis is Z.

ScreenShot005.jpg

[Totyo]

Yes, 4 hours it's not ok at all! Do you have a way to provide me your model for internal testing?

And Decimation master kills the Subdivision levels as it is designed to optimize the polygon count without affecting the visual aspect of your models. No way to keep your levels in the way it works...

[Faber Draconis]

Hey, that´s a really nice offer :tu:
I could send you that 60 MB file (rar) by mail, if u PM me your adress.

That issue with the lost Sublvls - well, it´s an experiece to be made to ^^
And I found a warning in a tutorial, but afterwards *sigh*

Now, have a lot of thanks for your support, that´s giving my motivation an upward progress again *dance*