Make many of the same item and occluding items

[jwoods141]

[PROH]

...?

[jwoods141]

Not sure why it did not include my text, I did definitely type it out, but oh well. Here it is:

"Hi guys

I have two questions I hope you guys can help with.

The first one is, what is the best method to creating many of one single item? I created some seats in an arena as you can see in my screen shot. Basically what I did is create one seat and then copy it many times and then combine them at the end into one item. My question is, is there a more effecient way to do this?

My second question has to do with performance. Although everything is working and looking fine, there are now a lot of polygons that exist that are not visible that would needlessly weigh down the game I am making when it is running. I know that I can go through and remove the polygons that are not visible, but I am wondering if 3ds max has a easier option for this.

I am using 3ds max 2015. Thank you for any help guys."

[svb3d]

that sound like a job for the Array tool and ProOptimizer

there are also some optimizer scripts and plug-ins out there

[CAMedeck]

www.itoosoft.com

Itoo offers two things that will help you greatly.  Ideally, use Forest Pack.  There is a free version that would do what you want with a little work.  If you are willing to shell out a little cash, go Pro.  You can draw a few splines and array the chairs along the spline easily.  I've done this and populated full stadiums with thousands of seats and cheering fans.  Forest Pack creates it's own proxy objects, so rendering and memory usage is pretty light compared to using all geometry.

Your other option is to download their free plugin called Clone.  It's a modifier that let's you clone an object in any direction, and apply scale, rotation, and even random material IDs.  With two clone modifiers, you could recreate what you have now in just seconds.  And since it is a modifier, you can go back and adjust the spacing, number, etc.