Vertices count in Maya2020?

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I am trying to build a model for Google Earth, but I keep getting the error that it has more than 64K vertices.  And I have spent the last week trying to simplify the model, but it would really help if I could see the current number of vertices I have, so I can plough on in Maya, rather than keep going back to Google Earth to be told it is still too complex.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

Display -> Heads Up Display -> Poly Count

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that. Problem now is, the model only has 45K verts... Here comes another question.... 😉

[osidedan]

Hello! I saw your follow up question about the model only having 45k verts and still having a problem. I think this might be part of what is going on, and I hope this helps explain vert counts a bit! 

Short answer:
Maya reports vertex counts differently than other programs (confusing, I know). To find out exactly how many vertices your model actually has, multiply the number of triangles by 3. 

Long answer:
Maya counts vertices that are "merged" as a single vertex. I assume this is because it makes it more user friendly. However, under the hood for rendering anything in 3d, every triangle costs 3 vertices regardless of if the vertices are merged or not. For example, here is a simple plane that is made up of two triangles. Maya says it has 4 vertices, but it actually has 6 vertices because every triangle is made up of 3 vertices (2 tris * 3 verts = 6 verts)

 If you were to bring this plane into google earth, or a game engine, or whatever, it would count as 6 vertices. So, if you want to know the true vert count of your model, you just have to multiply the triangle count by 3. 

I hope that makes some kind of sense haha. Let me know if you have any questions on any of that. Cheers!

[Anonymous]

Oh wow!  I have 235,371 vertices then! Total rethink on the model!

[osidedan]

Oh wow, yea that is a lot! That said, you can optimize your mesh fairly quickly by removing triangles that will never be seen or missed, and still keep the overall visual impact. I'm not sure what your model looks like, but here are some things you can usually remove if they are there:
- tris on the bottom of the model (the ground will cover all that, plus since it's google earth the user can't move the camera under the model and look up)
- tris on pieces of geo that are hidden because they butt up against other geo (think backside of a pillar in the corner, butted up against a wall)
- excessive tris on flat surfaces that could be defined with less geo (i.e. a wall with too many subdivisions that could just be a plane)

The list goes on and on, but those are some quick gains if you decide to go that route. Hope that helps, and let me know if you need more info. Cheers!