Introduction
In this documentation, we will go through the process of setting up the model to be used in Aximmetry's render engine.
Preparations of geometry
Polygon count
Aximmetry renders the scene in real-time, so the computer has limited time to render each frame. Because of this, we should aim not to use models with very high polygon counts.
Using scanned models is a typical issue that users run into, to solve this you can use any 3d software's built-in tool to remesh the model or you can do it by hand.
Of course, how many polygons you can render is heavily dependent on your computer's performance and how many other effects you want to use in your scene.
Triangulation
Triangulation is the process when the render engine converts the polygons of the model to triangles. It is advised to pay attention to keep topology clean while modeling as fixing these errors is much harder on a finished model.
Generally speaking, we suggest using your modeling software to triangulate the models.
Alternatively, you can let Aximmetry do the triangulations.
When importing a model Aximmetry tries to automatically triangulate the polygons, for it to be successful, it is important not to have Ngons in your model, because those sometimes can not be converted into triangles.
In this case, a similar message will appear: This message also indicates which object is problematic. Cube.001 and Cube.006 in this example.
Another issue with Ngons is that reflections may not be rendered correctly. With flat surfaces, this is less of an issue but on curved surfaces, it is much more noticeable.
Example of Good topology:
As you can see, Aximmetry could easily triangulate this model and give correct results.
Example of bad topology:
In this case, Aximmetry was able to triangulate the model, however, this triangulation would have strange and unrealistic reflections.
Size of the model
The base measurement in Aximmetry is a meter. Although Aximmetry can load objects of many different sizes, it behaves best if the unit is set to meters.
We suggest you use meters as the unit when modeling, but you can also convert it to meters at the end. (be careful, as some modeling software can't handle unit changes correctly)
Number of objects
You should aim to keep the number of objects reasonable. This will make your scene easier to manage and set up later in Aximmetry.
There is a maximum of 200 objects you can import with a single model. You can learn about this here.
Preparation of Textures
You can use textures in many different ways, we will show you the most common approaches.
Procedural textures
Procedural textures are not handled by Aximmetry automatically, if you wish to use a texture created with such a generator you should bake them into a texture file.
Static textures
You can get static textures from many different sources, make sure to use a reliable source to avoid getting incorrect results. Although Aximmetry allows you to do some adjustments of the UV of your models we suggest adjusting them in your modeling software instead.
Aximmetry can also use lightmaps, to learn more about this click here.
Mipmaps
If you wish to use Mipmaps in your textures there are two possible ways:
- You generate with your own software - in this case, we suggest using the .dds file format to save the texture.
- Generate Mipmap with Aximmetry
- With Attributes as explained here.
- With the Converter module - set up the connections like so and set the Mipmaps pin value to "Add"
- The Out pin of the module will have the same texture with Mipmaps added to it.
GPU memory usage
When working with textures you should always keep in mind that all of the textures are stored uncompressed in the GPU memory.
- This means that they take up much more space than their size indicates in the file browser.
Aximmetry also uses some of your GPU memory for the rendering(around 2-4GB depending on resolution and inputs).
Your own textures will be added to this amount.
- You should aim to keep around 1GB of memory empty for reliable rendering.
Texture compressions
There are many special texture compressing methods designed for real-time rendering.
These compressions reduce the amount of GPU memory used by the textures without noticeable visual differences.
Aximmetry allows you to apply them to your textures easily.
You can read about this here.
In the next tutorial, we will go through how you can export 3D models.
