I attempted to use decimation master for a 2.945 mil (active points) z tool with no layers or sub-tools at 20% decimation which resulted in an 89.5 MB z tool; however, when I load it up in to Z brush it still reads as 2.945 mil points and the file is too large and takes forever for me to get any work done on it (such as smart resym). Attempted the same at 80% decimation exported as 212 MB obj and then saved as a ztool and it opened 2.392 points in z brush. I increased maximim poly per mesh to 41.901 and was eventually able to complete smart resym but with artifacts, surface noise, and shrapnel on the newly duplicated symmetry. Any suggestions?
are you exporting out the mesh that you decimate?
Are you planning on sculpting on a decimated mesh? Never do this.
You didn’t really ask a question, just wanted suggestions, but I don’t know what your end goal is so I can’t really help.
It’s kind of like asking for directions without telling me where you’re going. So…I’m going to go with, North on main, take a left at the 3rd light and maybe it’s on your left.
Sorry, to clarify, I was attempting to perform a smart resym operation and then carry on sculpting with the decimated mesh. My end goal was to to able to start over and continue sculpting after accidentally allowing my poly points to balloon beyond one million.
I still don’t understand what you’re trying to do?
Are you mirroring your mesh or attempting a smart resym?
What are the spec on your comp?
3mil should be an easy smart resym function.
Do not decimate your mesh and then sculpt on it. A decimated mesh is not made for any type of SDS sculpting, you want evenly spaced quads, not triangles of all sizes.
Artifacts can occur during a smart resym if your mesh doesn’t have a perfect sym line or if your mesh is just being wonky. What percent of sym can be found doing a smart resym (top left section displays the percent or full sym found after the deformation is performed)?
Can you post up images to better illustrate what you’re trying to achieve?
Decimation is more of last step or when you need to bring the model into other software that can’t handle the high polycounts. Sculpting on a decimated mesh is not a good idea. The process creates tris but it also creates them non-uniform. If you have a flat area it will create a large face which can be a problem with brushes.
If resym is taking a while try masking off areas you don’t need to resym. So for example if you only need to resym the ears then mask off the rest of the head. This should speed up the process considerably. Also depending on your model you could break it up into subtools. This could help with your hardware to handle higher detail but as separate tools.