Reducing Polygons for Pepakura

[Torayes]

Im starting on my first pepakura armor build and I decided to do the helmet first. I'm doing the halo 5 recon helmet and when I open the game file in pep it has about 3000 polygons which is just too many to handle. I figured I could just pop into blender and reduce the number of polygons but nothing I do doesn't result in gross artifacting type issues and i have no idea how to get around this.

What is the typical number of plygons that a helmet for pepakura end up having normally as I have no idea what im meant to be aiming for?

 

[tcass01]

There is no "easy" way about reducing polygons. As with most game files you will have to first intersect the exterior shapers like knobs and cylinders, etc. with the primary exterior helmet shape and then delete the part that hangs inside. If there is an interior layer to the helmet, that will have to be deleted as well. Then individually reduce the polygons by redrawing the file deleting poly's as you go. I.E delete 4 poly's to make 1. Most files I have worked on I have done in Sketchup as it is a more user-friendly program. I have taken the Recon file an put it into Sketchup to review it. It could be unfolded as it is. . The neck hole can be removed (which you could do in Pepakura designer), and a few minor tweaks but with the complex curves and raised and lowered panels it would be hard to remove more than about 350 polygons. If you go into Pepakura designer 4, Settings/Other settings/Line styles (Threshold) and set it to 165-168 degrees, you will see it automatically decrease the # of folds for you.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Also remember, the end product isn't going to have all those polygonic shapes in it. So trying to reduced them is a moot point. It's just a means to an end.