🧵 3D printing resolutions
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 15:32:33 UTC No. 909661
So I'm planning on getting an Elegoo Saturn at some point, and also designing my own models for it. Slight problem is I don't know what polygon resolution/face density is best for that. On the one hand I don't want to have a crusty PS2-tier model, on the other hand I know there's know point having extra geometry past a certain point, as it just slows shit down and becomes hard to work with for no benefit at the scale.
To put things in context- I'm working on a Tyranid Hierophant alternative kit, and have the whole body in the low-detail/basic shape stage. I started sculpting on just the head, and got carried away with subdivisions/remeshing to the point I ended up with 6 million polys on just that head. Meanwhile I checked a model someone else had made of the same creature and it had 1 million polys for the entire model.
Obviously a 28mm scaled Hierophant is xbox hueg so it will have more polys than a much smaller mini, but even so, is there a simple method of working out what resolution the model needs to be?
(Using Blender FWIW)
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 16:32:08 UTC No. 909676
Test
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 16:36:50 UTC No. 909677
>>909661
I sculpted that model in blender a couple of years ago, you have several version online to print too, this has 2M tris 30 pieces and it should look fine, the biggest model that I've done has 15M tris, with organic you can do whatever, if you do hard surface you have to play more with resolutions.
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 22:52:14 UTC No. 909754
>>909677
Oh nice, you made it? It's a damn cool model, you should be proud of yourself anon.
As a slight update I have successfully reduced the polys to a less ridiculous amount, and will only increase the res as needed.
>>909678
I asked on /tg/ and they suggested for technical advice to go here. Also 3D printing covers more areas than just tabletop.
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 23:43:49 UTC No. 909764
>>909754
>made it?
Yes, I made it, you have this version in cults too.
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gam
Anonymous at Sat, 23 Jul 2022 23:53:20 UTC No. 909766
>>909764
Sweet. Also I'm using the head from yours as a reference for the detail quality/size/sharpness etc and I think I'm onto something at long last. So thanks anon, you're good people. Here's mine (very WIP) next to yours.
Anonymous at Sun, 24 Jul 2022 00:02:42 UTC No. 909767
>>909766
Looks good, nids are great as practise.
Anonymous at Sun, 24 Jul 2022 03:34:26 UTC No. 909782
>>909661
I'm still feeling it out for myself, but I tend to keep my models (which are 32mm infantry minis) around 100k-200k polys. I'm printing on an Elegoo Saturn 4k and while the polygons are readily visible in my renders, at the scale they're printing at they don't really show up at all on the physical model due to what I can only assume is light bleed and anti-aliasing.
The main reason I do this is that Chitubox starts to shit itself once I start preparing print plates with multiple 500k poly models crammed into them, taking forever to slice and making my shitty laptop run hot all the while. I'd recommend at least decimating your finished STLs for that reason.
Of course if you're doing large models with large surfaces where individual polys may be more apparent it may be more of an issue, so you will probably have have to run some tests for yourself.
Anonymous at Sun, 24 Jul 2022 03:39:08 UTC No. 909783
Shitty render I know but anyway, basic turnaround of the Hierophant head. Still needs a tongue and a bit of cleanup towards the back (specifically for a neck joint) but otherwise happy with this thing.