Real-time Visual Debug Aid for Retopo

Hi,

I got some ideas for retopo tool after watching the Blender Conference 2023: A new approach to Retopology
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AR9-LxY6AQ). I don't use subdivision in my works because I model for games, but I like one part where he shows the heat map.



It will be really awesome if we can have some real-time visual debug aid to help us spots unwanted polygon results, and makes better decision during retopo.

For Ngons
For example, to clean up the ngons.



Currently, I would do this at the last step. I have a button that calls a composite tool that will select all ngons, I will assign it some material with distinct material and clean them up one by one.

It would be great if it can be something like a view overlay, so every time I fixed an ngon, the view will updates and shows just what's left.

For Convex/Concave Quads

Like ngons, I will also fix convex and concave quads at the last step, and there are tons of them:



The image above shows just the convex quads at an angle of 20. Together with the concave quads, there will be more. If I reduce the angle to 10, there will be even more.

The reason why I want to fix them is because if I left the game engine to decide how to triangulate them, it might be not what I want. For example:



This is why I think a real-time visual debug aid will helps immensely because I will just switch it on during retopo and solve the issue as soon as I see it.

For areas that need more poly density



Maybe it will be helpful, if we also can see the distance between the polygon and the surface below. Something like this?



I drew it very crudely, it will show red if there's a big difference under and show blue if the difference is above the polygon, for example. So we can see if that's where we need to add more polygon.

We might be able to also use the color information to reduce polygons, when we added too much polygons to some areas or a very flat area.

The colors can be something like this but should be on the same window, like an overlay while not obstructing the view too much as we work:



I know these might be very complex to do, so I understand it might be impossible, but I will keep hoping..

-- For Ngons

I can add number of ngons info in the HUD display. Good enough?

-- For Convex/Concave Quads

There are some related tools here, Help > Contents > Modeling > Retopo Tools > Polygon Face Winding Control.

-- For Convex/Concave Quads

It is not possible to implement this feature in Nvil.

I am not sure, maybe it's good to add to HUD? otherwise, I can also just use the hotkey to select ngon everytime I want to check.

I didn't knew this rewind thing, I think it will solve my problem, I will try it. Thank you!

One thing I hope you can add is a parameter to the Select Concave and Convex quad, to be used in composite tool. So I can have a hotkey setup to select polygons with concave/convex of 20 degree angle everytime, for example.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Nov-14-23.rar

-- The ngon info is added to HUD. It only shows if there is any nogons in the selected objects.
-- P_Select Concave\Convex Quads
-- P_Select Retopo-Offset Polygons

I think I've got it done.

http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Nov-19-23.rar

https://youtu.be/Sguxbo-p99I

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Nov-14-23.rar

-- The ngon info is added to HUD. It only shows if there is any nogons in the selected objects.
-- P_Select Concave\Convex Quads
-- P_Select Retopo-Offset Polygons

I think I've got it done.

http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Nov-19-23.rar

https://youtu.be/Sguxbo-p99I

Thank you so much IStonia, I will try it!