VizUp 3D Reducer

Type of Program: Graphics Optimizer
Supported Platforms: Win9x/NT/XP
Version: 1.1
Company Name: VizUp
Price: $99 (Standard Edition) $299 (Professional Edition)
Installed Size: 500KB

Download/Homepage

When you work with creating 3D models you ultimately could end up with models that have so many polygons that it slows your end product down; whether it is your 3D game environment or your 3D Web site. If you build your model using the highest priced application or the lowest, your model could conceivably end up with 50,000 polygons or more. The more polygons that are in your model can really hamper your desired output.

This is where VizUp 3D Reducer comes in. It is an easy-to-use program that will take your model and reduce its polygons at the click of a button! After it has crunched the model you can select from ten percent on up to decide which reduction model you wish to then export. For example, I have a model that has 19,098 polygons in it before I run it through VizUp 3D Reducer. After I crunch these polygons VizUp 3D Reducer will give me a display of all the reductions ratios. If I want my final model to be reduced by fifty percent, I click on the 50% button and export the final model. In my example after I crunched this model I could select from 19,098 polygons all the way down to 953 polygons in my final output without losing any significant portions or overall structure of my original model. In essence you can reach just about any level of detail and optimization with VizUp 3D Reducer. Whether you use it for game programming or for the Web, decreasing the size of 3D models can sometimes be critical.

You can view your model in Flat, Smooth, and Texture or Wireframe modes while working with it. You can zoom in and out on it, rotate it to see areas that may be of concern as well as look at the model's Vertices. After you have reduced the model you can always view what the reduced model will look like from any angel and degree and then at the click of a button look at the original to compare any differences and loss of detail.

Bottom Line: I liked it that the Status Line gives you information about the original number of Polygons as well as the number you've reduced it to (once you've selected the reduced model). You reduce your model once, then select the percentage (reduction ratio) that best suits your needs or see where any distortion may have occurred. Although during the process of optimization you may lose some vertices, the coordinates of the remaining do not change which allows you to still texture map your final model with precision. If you have a number of models you need to reduce then do a Batch Conversion in a matter of minutes! The biggest draw back is that it only works with Version 2.0 of the VRML files (.WRL format). So you will need other format conversion programs to go from this format to another. Other than this, VizUp 3D Reducer does indeed reduce. It works great with crunching polygons with little or no loss to the original model.

Performance
User Friendly
Cost
Ease of Installation
Support
Reviewed by Robert Hall

Purchases can be made by visiting their Web site.

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