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Testers Wanted - Bathroom countertop items UPDATED

by nikkibailey Posted 12th Apr 2005 at 8:32 PM - Updated 12th Apr 2005 at 10:29 PM by nikkibailey : added zip file
 
23 Comments / Replies (Who?) - 22 Feedback Posts
Test Subject
#2 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 8:44 PM
downloading now love it
Forum Resident
#3 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 8:51 PM
looks great. nice work. will test later.
#4 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 9:03 PM
Awesome work, thank you
Test Subject
#5 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 9:04 PM
I love it.
Field Researcher
#6 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 9:07 PM
thanks
its nice
would go good with the other bathroom accessories I downloaded
Field Researcher
#7 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 9:09 PM
Looks good. Thank you for bringing some much needed variety.
Scholar
#8 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 10:02 PM
Great work, thanks for sharing it. I'll let you know if anything bad happens.
Test Subject
#9 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 10:14 PM
Great work!! I would love to download it, But sorry I can't unzip rar files =(
Instructor
#10 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 11:05 PM
Aqua net! LOL

Thank you.


"S"
V^^^^V
Instructor
#11 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 11:14 PM
Looks good, thank you.
Field Researcher
#12 Old 12th Apr 2005 at 11:15 PM
Its cute.

Thank you!
Forum Resident
#13 Old 13th Apr 2005 at 12:13 AM
Looks nice thank you
Instructor
#14 Old 13th Apr 2005 at 12:58 AM Last edited by Motoki : 13th Apr 2005 at 1:03 AM.
Hi Nikki, thank you for taking the time to make an object and share it with us.

Now before I comment, I want to preface my comments and say please don't be discouraged or take what I am about to say in the wrong way. I'm just trying to help and I think you've done a fantastic job for your very first mesh. Trust me you don't even want to see my first mesh. I know using these 3D programs is not so simple but you do seem to have picked up the basics of using them pretty quickly.

Now I did a polygon count on your mesh and it came out to over 13,000 polygons. Just to give a point of reference, Maxis reccomends user made meshes in general not be much over 800 polygons. And while Maxis' number is rather low and they don't always stick it themselves, 13,000 is awfully high for a small decorative item.

Polygons are the shapes that make up a mesh. They're the areas between the (vertex) points. In general, the higher polygon count a mesh has, the more detail it contains. This is usually okay for people wanting to do still picture 3D renders, but in games the video card is constantly redrawing and re-rendering the objects and your object gets combined with a lot of others, so having too many polygons has the potential to slow your game down, so it's best when modding for gaming to try to make your meshes as low polygon as you can get away with while still maintaining the basic shape and look you want.

If you are using Milkshape, to check the polygon count go to the top menu and click on tools, then from the drop down menu choose "Show Model Statistics". A box will come up with information. The line that reads "triangles" will have a number after it. While you don't necessary have to stick to Maxis' reccomendation of 800 polygons, you probably should try to keep it under 2,000-3,000 or even less if you can manage it. Particularly if it's a smallish item that has the potential to be used multiple times in a house.

You can also roughly tell if a mesh is high polygon just by eyeballing it in your 3D editor. The areas where there are few points and they are spread out from each other and you can easily see the skeleton of the mesh are generally low polygon while areas where there's lots of points close together in one areas so much so that you almost see solid white rather than the individual dots are generally high polygon areas.

I posted a picture of your mesh and circled the problem area. The can and the bottle are fine and quite low polygon objects, but it's the brush that's high polygon. The main problem area are the bristles (which I circled in the picture, see how there's so many points and it's so densely packed that it's almost solid white?) and to a lesser extent the circles on the handle could be optimized too.

What you might want to do is instead of have individual bristles meshed out is to make one large wide and short cylinder for the bristles and then put a texture along the sides and another one on the top that has a picture of bristles with spaces in betweem on the texture image. The object is pretty small and most people probably are not going to get in close enough to notice that kind of detail anyway.

Once again I think you've done a great job, don't be discouraged it's a constant learning process, there's still PLENTY that I don't know but I'm always learning. Keep at it and keep up the good work and thanks again for your generousity to make and share something with us.
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#15 Old 13th Apr 2005 at 3:30 PM
Motoki:

Thanks for the advice. I'll work on fixing it today. I really appreciate everyone's help. And no way is it discouraging...I really want to make high quality objects that people will enjoy and this is the only way to learn.

Thanks again.
Nikki
Test Subject
#16 Old 14th Apr 2005 at 12:28 AM
More stuff for my sims to have cluttering up their house!!
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 14th Apr 2005 at 2:13 AM
looks great. nice work.
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 14th Apr 2005 at 6:09 AM
clutter clutter clutter i love clutter
Field Researcher
#19 Old 14th Apr 2005 at 7:42 AM
Great work
Forum Resident
#20 Old 17th Apr 2005 at 4:33 AM
:yippee: more clutter, Thank you Nikki, looks really great.
Lab Assistant
#21 Old 23rd Apr 2005 at 1:19 AM
Clutter objects are the best. I absolutely love it!
Test Subject
#22 Old 23rd Apr 2005 at 2:38 AM
Thanks nikki! You always make the best stuff to clutter my counters! Great graphics, as always!
Test Subject
#23 Old 8th May 2005 at 2:33 AM
Thank you I value your work.
Test Subject
#24 Old 9th Jan 2006 at 6:35 PM
thank you agien ,, my Sims love the clutter .

Tiny Tams