Triangle Reducer

Simplygon’s triangle reducer is a cornerstone in many AAA games’ 3D art pipelines worldwide, designed to optimize rendering performance by creating mesh variants with fewer triangles.

The tool works by analyzing a model's geometry and reducing its complexity by eliminating triangles that have minimal visual impact. You can configure reduction targets based on specific triangle ratios, counts, screen sizes, or maximum deviation. This flexibility is invaluable for addressing technical limitations, minimizing Level of Detail (LOD) transitions, or standardizing settings across multiple assets.

A primary use case of the triangle reducer is to create Level of Detail (LOD) chains. A LOD chain is a sequence of progressively simplified model variants. When rendered at a distance, a less detailed model is used.

Another use case for the triangle reducer arises when developing games for multiple platforms. It can ensure that the model’s detail levels are tailored for each specific target platform. This is especially important when targeting less powerful platforms like VR headsets, mobile phones or handheld consoles.

The triangle reducer can be configured to suit your specific optimization requirements. It can account for specific model features like UV coordinates, tangents, normals, vertex colors, skinning data, and more. The importance of each of these factors can be weighed against each other. This flexibility allows artists to maintain visual quality while optimizing performance.

The reducer can be used alongside several other features to create a powerful, automated LOD chain pipeline. Here are some additional features that complement the Triangle Reducer:

• Material Merging: Prevent draw calls from being a bottleneck when many assets are on screen at once by using material merging on lower LOD levels.
• Bone Reduction: Use Bone Reduction to optimize the skinning influences of your rig alongside geometric complexity.
• Vertex Weighting: Use Vertex Weights in combination with blend shape and skinning preservation to automate the optimization of your AAA quality characters.
• Modular Seams: Use Modular Seams alongside Geometry Data Caster to create LODs for characters and assets with tons of in-game customization options.

If you are interested in evaluating how the triangle reducer can optimize your game, contact us for an evaluation.