How to Decimate and Bake Atlas in Autodesk 3ds Max

This guide is part of the RapidPipeline 3D Plugin Actions Knowledge Base. It shows how to Decimate and Bake Atlas on Autodesk 3ds Max; if you'd like to know more about it, please check out the following links:

• Learn more about the Decimate and Bake Atlas
• Learn more about Autodesk 3ds Max

1. On the Menu Bar, click on RapidPipeline and choose Load Plug-in.
2. Select the model you want to optimize (if no selection is made, the whole scene will be processed).
3. Inside the plugin window, choose the action Decimate and Bake Atlas.
4. Press the Run button. :::tip Decimation actions by default use a deviation target. When the Deviation Percentage is more than zero, the Face Target will act as an upper limit for the face count, instead of acting as a forced target. Increasing the Deviation Percentage will allow the optimizer to go lower when possible. However if you simply want to reach an exact face target, the Deviation Percentage should be set to 0. :::

• Use the 3ds Max plugin
• Run "Decimate and Bake Atlas" action
• Examine the results

This tutorial shows how use the RapidPipeline Processor plugin in 3ds Max to simplify the geometry of a model with decimation and bake the material and texture information into a new UV atlas.

The asset used in this tutorial is the 'Belz's RTFKT Challenge' (https://skfb.ly/6VnPP) by Belzar Sirus is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

The shoe input model and the texture maps

The shoe after the optimization and the texture maps (baked)

1. Select the model you want to optimize (if no selection is made, the whole scene will be processed).
2. Inside the plugin window, choose the action Decimate and Bake Atlas.
3. Press the Run button.

The Decimate and Bake Atlas action opened in the plugin

To see the results with proper shading and the effect of the texture baking, enable “High Quality” from the Viewport Shading drop-down menu.

"High Quality” option in the Viewport Shading drop-down menu

To fully check the topology optimization by enabling “Edged Faces” from the Viewport Shading drop-down menu, so you can see a wireframe view of your models.

Finally, you can compare the materials and texture count of input and output by selecting each of them and opening the Material Editor (shortcut M). Then, click on Materials and Get from selected from the top bar.

"Get from Selected” option in the Material drop-down menu

"Materials & textures from input model

"Materials & textures from output model

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