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Cruncher - Polygon Reduction Plugin for Unity Pro

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by bibbinator, Sep 4, 2012.

  1. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Hi all,

    Version 1.08 is now out. This adds a fix for a rare case where a problem with the user's PATH environment variable could cause Cruncher to not be able to find it's plugin and will get DllNotFoundExceptions.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2013
  2. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Cruncher now 25% off until the end of the year!

    Happy holidays everybody!

    Brett
     
  3. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    A reminder that Cruncher is on sale until the end of the month. Don't know why it's not on Unity's sale list :-(
     
  4. TopThreat

    TopThreat

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    I have purchased many assets, this is by far the best purchase I have made.
     
  5. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @LeeAllen

    Wow! Thanks for the encouraging words, comments like that really help motivate me to do more. Happy new year!

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  6. Zozo2099

    Zozo2099

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    Please can I know if it is fully compatible with Unity 4? thanks
     
  7. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @Zozo2099 Yes, it is fully compatible with Unity 4.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  8. GamePowerNetwork

    GamePowerNetwork

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    Sorry if this has been asked, but is there an API to do crunching at runtime?

    If not, do you plan to add one? It would be amazing!
     
  9. milox777

    milox777

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    I wonder if this would work with MeshBaker: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/159258-Mesh-Baker-by-Digital-Opus-RELEASED

    Say you have level built from several pieces with different materials, so you use MeshBaker to combine all of them into one big mesh and one texture atlas, and then use Cruncher to reduce polygons on the whole thing. Now that would be epic optimization! Any idea if that would work?
     
  10. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @milox88 It should work as long as MeshBaker produces a normal, full mesh which I guess it should.
     
  11. Lars-Steenhoff

    Lars-Steenhoff

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    Hi Bibbinator, Could you integrate an undo into the Chuncher?
    I need undo for the first initialisation of cruncher on a model, because sometimes it deletes the position of a model and I can't get it back to before with undo. I have to close unity and revert to a saved scene. Many thanks!
     
  12. friuns3

    friuns3

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    Hi are normals fixed in v1.05 ? we could buy it then

    in 1.0 version had problems after optimization - models become black and in console reads that model don't have normals even if regenerate it.
     
  13. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @friuns3

    It's the first time I ever heard there was a problem with normals. Many people using this tool for loads of production work and no known problems. Since you were able to try it out, then you must have bought it already, why not just re-download it from the asset store and try again?

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  14. friuns3

    friuns3

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    thanks for fast reply. i didn't bought it yet

    first posts are on forum, so i though it fixed?

     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2013
  15. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Oh, _that_ normal problem. Lol. Yeah that was fixed ages ago :)
     
  16. friuns3

    friuns3

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    good :) i have few more questions.

    i have fbx with 2 skinned meshes inside (hands and weapon) can set for each mesh different target quality?
     
  17. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @friuns3

    Yes, you can set meshes independently. The normal workflow is to convert the entire mesh, and do general reduction. Then open click on the submeshes of the object and adjust those. There is a setting called "Relative" that you can then use to maintain the adjustments to submeshes you made by keeping the relative adjustment between the meshes the same.

    This makes it easy to adjust the mesh overall, tweak it, then still be able to tweak the overall mesh to generate LODs.
     
  18. Harry1960

    Harry1960

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    Cruncher really is an excellent tool but it seems to have problem with recalculating the normals.
    The first image show the result of reducing a mesh to a quality of 0.5 (please note the areas within the circles):

    http://www.harrypaintner.de/public/Cruncher.png

    When a recluculate the mesh via Mesh.RecalculateNormals() the mesh is fine again:

    http://www.harrypaintner.de/public/UnityCalcNormals.png

    Perhaps it would helpfull to add an option whether Unity or Cruncher recalculates the normals.

    Harry
     

    Attached Files:

  19. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @Harry1960

    I'll look into this a bit more. The normals don't change and are based on the whatever it was at that vertex before the edge collapse, so it shouldn't change. E.g. I don't calculate the normals, I use the original mesh's normal for each vertex.
     
  20. Harry1960

    Harry1960

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    Thanks for the quick response. I'll think you HAVE to recalculate that normals since Cruncher is removing triangles. As I mentioned before it would be great if you just would offer an option to do that or not. If you want I'll sent you the mesh from the sample above.

    Thanks for your support

    Harry
     
  21. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    I thought I posted a response a week ago, but I see today it didn't get posted. Hmmm....

    Anyway, I can't just recalculate normals because that's not always what you want. In a 3D modeling package you can specify a surface angle such that it "breaks" normals (e.g. Smoothing Angle) at a given vertex point. For example a cube is a good example. It will normally have 24 vertices and 24 normals because you don't want to share this across the corner because it would look wrong. If you gave cruncher a high-poly cube and asked it to reduce it and I recalculated normals, you'd end up with smoothed corners and it wouldn't look right. But sometimes you do want normals recalculated.

    By default, Cruncher will use the lowest indexed vertice's normal. This is why in some cases you get dark artifacts to appear as it propagates though the model which I agree in some cases isn't what you want.

    I'll look into providing a checkbox for Recalculating Normals, and also a Weld Vertices checkbox and Threshold to give the user more control for how they want it to work.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  22. sloopidoopi

    sloopidoopi

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    Hi,
    first of all I want to say this tool is real cool!
    But as Harry1960 has mentioned, I also have problems with some Normals . (The same visual artefacts at the borders of my car model )
    So I would also suggest a recalculate Normals option.
    @Harry1960 : how did you made the recalculation and saving of the mesh? An Editor script? could you provide some code?
     
  23. Harry1960

    Harry1960

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    Hi sloopodoopi, I just used a simple runtime script and changed the sharedMesh (not the instance mesh).
     
  24. sloopidoopi

    sloopidoopi

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    Hi Harry,
    I already made some little runtime script. Sadly my artefacts are not dissapearing completely. Hopefully a new version of Cruncher fixes this problems. Are there any workarounds or workflows to circumvent this issue? (Combine meshes in a 3d modeler program?)
     
  25. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Hey all,
    I'm adding some recalc options as I said. I apologize for the delays. I'm teaching a Unity masterclass this week and running a Unity game jam next week, but after that I will finish the feature.

    So sorry for the delays!
     
  26. Harry1960

    Harry1960

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    Hi Sloopidoopi,
    if you have wrong normals - even with recalculation - try to use a lower compression value. At a certain polygon reduction always looses important information. You have to fine tune to reduction to that point that keeps all important information but still reduces the triangle count. Depending on the geometry the loss of important information can happen very soon even if the used algorhythm tries to minimze that problem. It happens sooner or later.

    Harry
     
  27. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Hi all,
    Just an update. I have finished adding the next round of features for Cruncher 1.06, including options for recalculating normals and optimizing meshes. I need to do a bit more testing, but hopefully will submit to Asset Store soon (it's GDC week and it may take time to get approved).

    To that end, if anybody has meshes that have particularly bad normals after reduction you can send me, please PM me and let me know. I want to be sure it's doing the right thing.

    Cheers,
    Brett

    $Screen Shot 2013-03-29 at 10.59.04 AM.png
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2013
  28. tabor

    tabor

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    Hi Bibb,
    I want to ask you about the best lightmapping workflow when using cruncher and LODs. Should I bake lightmaps first then crunch and make LOD's? Any thoughts?
     
  29. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Generate the LODs first so that they have their own light maps that can be controller separately (and therefore LOD can choose not to use light maps as an optimization)
     
  30. sloopidoopi

    sloopidoopi

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    Hi,
    I play with the new 1.06 version and have a couple of issues:
    1.)My quality settings always reset when I save my scene or when I enter the play mode .For example on the root object my quality is 0.8, in play mode it switch to 0.99069 and stays there .(I guess it's more a editor field display error, as my mesh seems to be the same). Also all other options that i switched on (Mege Normals, Recalculate Normals) are switched off in the editor.

    2.)Don't know how the new recalculate normals option is implemented, but my artefacts on my car model are still there.(don't know if/ how they reduced compared to the old cruncher version).What real suprises me is the fact that if I leave my old script on my object(where I make a recalculate normals via script on the Start event) I can reduce my artefacts still a bit more.

    (unity 4.1.0f4, win 7 64 bit)
     
  31. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @sloopidoopi

    I won't say there isn't a possibility of something being wrong, but it took me a long while to release this because I spent time trying to verify normals are working correctly. You can write a simple debug gizmos script that draws lines to show the normals and add it to meshes and verify the results. That's what I did and checked a number of meshes before I released this.

    In my tests, the artifacts were simply due to using the way the editor drew the mesh using the builtin light. When I viewed the normals they are correct (and not much different than without recalculating which makes sense).

    So if you really think you found a problem, please PM me the mesh along with a screenshot of your settings so I can try to verify.

    As for the editor settings getting reset, I'll take a look. I hadn't seen that before. Can you try restarting Unity and reloading your scene and see if the problem goes away?

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  32. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Hey all,
    There's some weirdness with Cruncher 1.06 because the Mesh Configuration settings aren't being saved correctly. So you'll notice that you seem to lose their settings, and this spills over into the mesh quality/quantity getting confused. I'm working on a fix, but I'm at Unite Korea event and may need until the weekend before I can submit a new build.

    So for those that haven't upgraded to 1.06, you might want to wait for 1.07. The only difference 1.06 brings was the ability to have more control over your mesh settings. If you're happy with the way Cruncher is working, you don't need 1.06 (or 1.07 either).

    Sincere apologies to any users now facing lost settings.

    And thanks to Stefan for taking time to point this out with steps to reproduce a complete case of the problem.
     
  33. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Hey all,
    I found out the problem and it's actually been there since version 1.0 but only really surfaced with the latest release (and a user that figured out a good test case).

    In reality there were 3 related problems (all minor) and I fixed all of them and resubmitted to the Asset Store. Watch for v1.07. Hopefully this version will make using Cruncher more enjoyable. But if you find any bugs, please report them!

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  34. Turbine

    Turbine

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    Can you please put in a progress bar while crunching? I have no idea if Unity has crashed or it is just taking a while.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2013
  35. atmuc

    atmuc

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    can i export reduced models? i want to use it both for unity and modo animations.

    can it also reduce uv texture size? if i use LOD does it make sense to use both high and low resolution textures?
     
  36. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @Turbine I'll look into this.

    @atmuc Not directly, but you could use the OBJ exporter on the community wiki to export reduced static models. As for LOD if you enable mipmaps for the texture it should get you what you want. If you want manual control, duplicate the material and texture and map the duplicated texture to the duplicated material. Then for the duplicated texture set the maximum size to be smaller (or use an image editor to do it).
     
  37. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    Cruncher 50% off today only!
     
  38. Zen-Davis

    Zen-Davis

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    Purchased!
     
  39. Banksy

    Banksy

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    Mmmm.. BaRgAiN
     
  40. Zen-Davis

    Zen-Davis

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    What are the plans for this software? Where do you want to take this eventually?
     
  41. the_gnoblin

    the_gnoblin

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    Hello!

    I've purchased this awesome piece of software, but I'm experiencing the following error:

    DllNotFoundException: Exception of type 'System.DllNotFoundException' was thrown.
    CruncherPlugin.CruncherPluginManager.Startup (System.String licenseKey)

    What should I do about it?

    thanks,
    Slav
     
  42. Sylker

    Sylker

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    Just bought it in the last 24h sale. It's awesome and simple. Using in Unity 4.1 with no problems. Working perfectly! Thanks for this really useful asset.
     
  43. ~dS~

    ~dS~

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    Very good deal purchased in 24H sale.
    Thanks for creating such a tool.

    ~Cheers:cool:~
     
  44. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @the_gnoblin Sorry you're having trouble. That's the error you get when Unity can't find the plugin. Unity scans for plugins at startup, so you simply need to restart Unity (just reopen your project). If that doesn't fix it, please send me a PM so I can help you.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  45. Zylex

    Zylex

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    Hi Brett,

    We have recently bought your Cruncher package with the Asset Store sale and so far it looks promising. However when I try converting my selection with multiple LOD levels it gives an error:

    Code (csharp):
    1. IndexOutOfRangeException: Array index is out of range.
    2. CruncherEditorPlugin.CruncherConverterWindow.UpdateConversion ()
    3. CruncherEditorPlugin.CruncherConverterWindow.OnInspectorUpdate ()
    4. System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Applications/buildAgent/work/b59ae78cff80e584/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
    5. Rethrow as TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
    6. System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Applications/buildAgent/work/b59ae78cff80e584/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:232)
    7. System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) (at /Applications/buildAgent/work/b59ae78cff80e584/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
    8. UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName, System.Object obj) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/7535de4ca26c26ac/Editor/Mono/GUI/DockArea.cs:234)
    9. UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/7535de4ca26c26ac/Editor/Mono/GUI/DockArea.cs:227)
    10. UnityEditor.HostView.OnInspectorUpdate () (at C:/BuildAgent/work/7535de4ca26c26ac/Editor/Mono/GUI/DockArea.cs:192)
    11.  
    It seems to work fine whenever I just use one LOD level. Any idea how this is caused and how it can be solved?

    Looking forward your answer.

    Matt
     
  46. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @Zylex

    You can only convert multiple LODs when you select them in the project hierarchy and not in the scene. The reason is that after you convert the first one, it's already a Cruncher object and the second one fails. I should probably disable multiple LODs if you have selected a scene object.

    Anyway, sorry about the error. Just select the models in the project view and try it and it should work fine.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  47. Zen-Davis

    Zen-Davis

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    I asked earlier but I guess you missed it what are your forward goals with this product? What is the road map with this?
     
  48. bibbinator

    bibbinator

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    @Zen Davis

    Oops, right you are, I did miss it, sorry.

    Cruncher seems to work very well for many people, so the number one thing is to make sure it stays as stable and reliable as possible. In terms of adding new features, the one I think that would benefit users the most would be to allow "painting" hints on the mesh for reduction.

    For example, in a character mesh, you could mark the face area as "more important" and other areas as "less important" so that reduction would take that into consideration.

    There's also already an API that you can use yourself to submit meshes via scripting to Cruncher. It is sort-of documented now, but I can imagine going forward that this could be more useful.

    But most importantly, I will keep listening to users and try to add things to Cruncher that they want.

    Cheers,
    Brett
     
  49. Zen-Davis

    Zen-Davis

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    Thank you for the prompt response Brett. I feel very comfortable and confident in doing business with you.
     
  50. ibyte

    ibyte

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    Hi I was wondering what the benefits of Cruncher are vs the standalone ATANGEO product (besides the obvious Unity editor integration)

    Is Cruncher comparable to Balancer or Balancer Pro?

    Thanks

    iByte