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By atangeo - 14 Years Ago
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Atangeo Balancer is a popular tool to optimize and simplify 3D models.
Its exceptional performance and a novel user interface allow finding
perfect balance between visual appearance and the number of polygons,
quickly and easily. Balancer utilizes a high quality polygon reduction
(aka mesh simplification or decimation) to preserve the visual
appearance of your model. The model features, normals, texture
coordinates, layer boundaries are all honored by Balancer.
Balancer also features fast and effective triangle reordering to
speed up rendering by optimal utilization of GPU vertex cache.
Check it out, all your feedback is highly appreciated.
Hope you will find Balancer useful.
Atangeo Balancer technology is also available as an SDK,
which is 32bit and 64bit binary libraries for both Windows and Mac OS X.Link: http://www.atangeo.com/
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By atangeo - 14 Years Ago
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Balancer has many unique features: - It guarantees preservation of all the model features including simplification of mutual boundaries of layers/submeshes/parts. This for examples guarantees the resulting simplified model does not have GAPS between layers/submeshes. - It has very high quality of triangles, simultaneously on all the levels, and still very good preservation of the original surface shape. - It allows to fine tune the simplification results by locking vertices. - It has a novel UI to easily pick the desired level/resolution. - And it is very very fast and works easily with very large models. You are welcome to try it yourself. Best regards,
atangeo
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By atangeo - 14 Years Ago
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I thought that the answer was obvious, and you was looking for why's 
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By atangeo - 14 Years Ago
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Yes, Balancer is superior to Pro Optimizer. Sorry for implicit answers
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By Dreamcube017 - 14 Years Ago
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Ah balancer.
I can actuaally say that this is a great piece of software and no, the OP is not paying me to say this.
It does work really well.
Here, I'll post some examples.
The first picture is the original model... it's over400,000 polygons... WAAAY over that...
The second picture was rendered in iClone and is about 43,000 polygons.
The second pic's shader is SLIGHTLY different as I couldn't get the exact same lighting and it's a different camera angle, but it's the same model... just reduced with Balancer.
I don't know how 3DS does it and I hae Lightwave as well and that also may do it, but when all I wanna do is reduce a shape, Balancer is a pretty quick app and really easy to fiture out too.
I'd just give it a shot and see what it can do... you being a Max user though, you may not need it. But I can say that it's been very useful.
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By atangeo - 14 Years Ago
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Thanks guys for trying Balancer out and for the feedback! Balancer comes now with both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries
on both Windows and Mac OS X. Link: http://www.atangeo.com/ BTW, here there is a nice comparison of Balancer against some 'Real 3D app's at the Luxology forums: http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=40386
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By vidi - 14 Years Ago
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I tried today . It is easy to use and work very well  . Just what I search for my development.
Thank you atangeo for your promo here.
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By warlord720 - 14 Years Ago
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I have used Balancer for quite a while now and really do like it. It reduces the models overhead while maintaining good form of the model its reducing. I find it compliments the other 3D apps I use quite nicely. I've been able to get very good results with models created in Vue and Max and I haven't even downloaded the latest version yet. For my taste it is superior to the modifiers in Max and makes Vue meshes much easier to work with in low poly environments. Very, very simple to use.
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By atangeo - 13 Years Ago
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Balancer 1.2 is available!
Now you can control face densities for selective reduction rate of
different groups/meshes/sub-meshes. For example, you can set
density of 5 to the head group of your model, to increase the density
of the head vertices roughly 5 times.
See this user guide page here: http://www.atangeo.com/guide/density
Enjoy
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By planetstardragon - 13 Years Ago
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i like this program a lot, it's helped me with models that would otherwise cripple iclone. nice work on this one, thanks for the update ~ Cheers.
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By bluemidget666 - 13 Years Ago
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Does anyone know how this does against Zbrushs Decimation Master ?
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By bluemidget666 - 13 Years Ago
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It beats the crap out of Zbrushs tool for poly reduction. Taking a 1/2 million polly model down to 1% distorts the mesh in Zbrush to a unusable state, but in Balancer the mesh still holds its shape. A 10 % model in Zbrush is ok but in Balancer it is very near the original.
Note : this is a out of the box test. Experienced users of Zbrush would get better results ...
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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Hey everybody !
Good news . With the free offer DAZ PROStudio Version and Balancer you can reduce your mesh with a few fingertip.
it is very easy and fast !!! Bones and texture are preserved !!!
The DAZ Decimator is expensive and the Balancer is cheap and I find so much better.
You can See I have Vicky reduce under 30000 Polys
If interest I will make a tutorial to show how it work
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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18000 Polys
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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another great find Vidi!! I use balancer but only for props, I had no idea it would handle rig info also! nice!
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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I had no idea it would handle rig info also! nice! Yes with the tranfer utility tool from the DAZ4 Pro Studio Version is it now possible .
We have luck DAZ gave us this tool free 
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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I just fired up balancer, it only accepts OBJ. Daz does this like export mesh in 3DX4 ?
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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you can see in the iC Szene Totals from the picture it is a Avatar no static object
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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ahh, okie, got it!! A new feature to learn in Daz!! thanks again!
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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it's really very easy to do ,
if i get my xc5 beta soon  , I will make a "how do" video
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By bluemidget666 - 12 Years Ago
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Yeah I am looking forward to seeing how far I can push the polly reduction tools in Daz Zbrush and Balancer 2 for use in 3Dx5
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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you guys should also check out wings 3D, i was playing with it recently and fixed a problem uv I was having a hard time fixing anywhere else with very simple selections! I didn't have to read the manual!! lol it also has this feature that automatically reduces polys, I was shocked at how fast and efficient it worked. I highly recommend adding this software to your tool list as it also reads lwo files and is free! http://www.wings3d.com/ and if you've used it before, make sure you see the latest features added to it and get the latest version.
I've been testing a lot of new 'little known' type softwares lately, some really hot stuff out there hidden in the net!!
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By bluemidget666 - 12 Years Ago
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Coool I am having a play with it now ...
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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i can't say that i knew what i was doing, i just kept clicking stuff and going oh wow! heh! there is a wiki for it though http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wings_3D/User_Manual
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By animagic - 12 Years Ago
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Hi vidi! I would like a tutorial. I have Balancer and I wished I'd known, because I did buy Decimator...
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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@sw00000p - I have this mesh of a dragon, it has this crazy UV and jpg that looks nothing like what it gets laid out like on the mesh, but it looks amazing. how do I go about keeping the jpg the way it's projecting now , but get the uv right ? I want to be able to touch up the paint job on this mesh, but when i paint the wing, it paints the leg too!! make it stop! lol
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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when i do, it changes the design though! is this a baking thing ? I need to reprint the graphic as it looks on mesh now and re-project that new image on a pelt UV, changing the uv without first making a new image to project will only show the current image incorrectly.
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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lolol!! If i have to study one more tutorial / major software in addition to all the ones I'm already learning ima explode. I'll just paint the wing/knees for now, and hopefully people wont say .."omg, whats up with your dragons legs dude?" thanks for your time though! 
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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ahh, Thank You! ok, I think I'll choose blender to study that technique! it has some amazing new UV tools that look like alien technology to me heh! will do that after i finish studying animation techniques in messiah! trying to find the best of everything ( within my reach lol )
Cheers!
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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maybe one day when i get all the basic skills i want, you can teach me some of those secret magic trix in 3DS max too!! I was starting to learn it actually, but it's a massive time consumer! I'm only doing blender again because it got easier with the new updates, it's powerful and it's free.
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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yeah, they both have melt modifiers, very easy to use too. Thats one of things i want to test in the future, i suspect i can bake those animations on to a prop, and be able to import the deformation without the need of importing bones. Was just looking at the 3DX4 help file, and one example they gave was of a teapot enlarging and shrinking. Hence animated deformation without bones!
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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hrmm, i like both techniques, this new one seems good for patchwork, where as the first one seems good for starting fresh. sounds like the difference of someone designing a model and someone who needs to get the model done an hour ago! heh!
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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ya, thats why i thought the 2nd one was the get it done quick job, because the first one seems focus on the point you started with, optimizing the uv for best performance. But will learn 2nd first though, the file is very low poly so i can afford a resource hog for edumicational purposes!!
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By vidi - 12 Years Ago
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lease don't confuse "Poly Reduction" with "Optomizing Models!"
"Poly Reduction" shows an increase in performance!
"Optimized Models" show a MASSIVE increase in performance!
It's nice to see others learning how to improve performance...
but in order to maximize your effors.... OPTIMIZE THE UV'S!
Oh I'm Sorry, I have forgotten to write.
There is a easy "push the button" in the DAZ Studio 4 pro Version, for the rest of us.
Soon I will show how to easy to do it is.
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By animagic - 12 Years Ago
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vidi (3/21/2012)
Oh I'm Sorry, I have forgotten to write. There is a easy "push the button" in the DAZ Studio 4 pro Version, for the rest of us. Soon I will show how to easy to do it is. Looking forward to that! I know sw00000p's method is more sophisticated, but perhaps it's best to start simple, speaking as a "Director"...
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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ya, but options for both should be available. remember, this is still entry level, it's just easier to change a texture for pants, one for shirt, one for shoes, etc.. the whole concept behind iclone is to have presets / templates and easy buttons for new animators. making the uv 1 big piece makes it more difficult for a new animator to do unique textures. Right now, you select the pants, give it a jeans texture and call it a day! you pay for that in performance. when something is made easier, something else has to pay! nothing is free, not even easy buttons!
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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ya , but vidi is not an inexperienced animator, i'm talking about the person who see's animation for the first time and says wow cool, can i try ? these are the guys without the photoshop that think blender is for fruitdrnks, messiah is a religious thing, 3DS max is the theatre with the big fancy screens and a UV map is something you read in a pick up truck!
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By animagic - 12 Years Ago
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Actually, I don't really have too many performance problems. And sometimes I make use of the fact that textures are separate to animate them independently. Examples in my upcoming movie...
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By colour - 12 Years Ago
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That's me planetstardragon (3/21/2012)
ya , but vidi is not an inexperienced animator, i'm talking about the person who see's animation for the first time and says wow cool, can i try ? these are the guys without the photoshop that think blender is for fruitdrnks, messiah is a religious thing, 3DS max is the theatre with the big fancy screens and a UV map is something you read in a pick up truck!
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By chakap - 10 Years Ago
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Hey I'm looking to hire a 3D modeler to create 2 characters for my project. If anyone is interested please reply to northstarrecordings@yahoo.com
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By petergpls - 10 Years Ago
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Actually I also thought balancer was a very useful product but sadly it creates dozens of surfaces which adds to drawcall count. For example I did some tests and found some meshes had gained 30-50 extra drawcalls which defeats the purpose for me as I am trying to reduce the tri's as well as the drawcalls. The daz decimator maintains the original surfaces which is how it should be.
I purchased the Atangeo NPro Balancer and yes it does extremely well in reducing polys BUT at a price - i.e. by increasing the surfaces ugh!!!
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By theschemer - 10 Years Ago
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petergpls (4/29/2014)
Actually I also thought balancer was a very useful product but sadly it creates dozens of surfaces which adds to drawcall count. For example I did some tests and found some meshes had gained 30-50 extra drawcalls which defeats the purpose for me as I am trying to reduce the tri's as well as the drawcalls. The daz decimator maintains the original surfaces which is how it should be.
I purchased the Atangeo NPro Balancer and yes it does extremely well in reducing polys BUT at a price - i.e. by increasing the surfaces ugh!!!
So does this affect the DAZ to iClone usefulness or for another use like Unity? Is Daz decimator better/same/worse than nPro Balancer?
Thanks,
TS
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By planetstardragon - 10 Years Ago
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try it before you buy it, on some occasions balancer has wrecked my uvs. For the most part it works great, but every once in a while, it leaves you wondering "what just happened?!" lol
I don't regret the purchase, but i find i need a few different options, just in case.
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By vidi - 10 Years Ago
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Is Daz decimator better/same/worse than nPro Balancer?
Balancer is great , but it support only obj. Also I had never trouble with this. I have never lost the texture, or get a mess mesh .
The results are very good . I have other decimate tools in my toolbox for comparison but these works not so fine.
Of course now
I like more the DAZ Decimator, because it will keep the bones and finally DAZ Decimator is balancer SDK under the hood .
Therefore I recommend DAZ Decimator , but please not only drag the slider and go !
for the best results, select or create Surface groups for details weighting. Also set unnecessary regions to unvisible.
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