Getting the polycount down on coiled cord?

[Billabong]

I have a coiled cord that goes from my shotgun to the flashlight. I'm trying to get the polycount down on it, but I feel like I'm as far as I can go and was wondering if any one has any better suggestions on going about this? So far all Ive been doing is deleting edges. Ive gotten the tris from 14K down to 2300, but its still not enough. My entire gun is going to go past the limit of 9K, that I have given myself to 11K.

I really appreciate any help with this.

-B

[Drew++]

Maybe try using 4 sides, or even 3... But also maybe try less turns/coils in the cord! It looks like it has 15 or 16 turns in it. Try half and see how it looks?

[Adam L. Gray]

I would probably do something like this:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6166/coile.jpg

And depending on how big you make the gaps, there wouldn't even be a need for an alpha-map to mask it out.

And if you really want some volume in there, then the same thing with a shell modifier could do.

[Billabong]

you lost me Adam. Why do you have that strand coming out like that?Sorry for the ignorance

[Billabong]

Wait, I think I understand. The cylindrical part is to encompass the high poly coil and the strand is the cord coming for the coil. Is that correct? I'm a little confused on how the strand would be circular though, even with a shell

[Pac_187]

Make a cylinder which follows the shape of the cord and bake the high poly onto it.
Remember to place a cylinder in the middle of the cord of the highpoly to compensate the gaps,
so the renderer doesn't read through the gaps. Use a alphamask to mask out the gaps, like Adam said. I used the same technique for the cord on my P90 and it turned out pretty good:

http://pac.gmod.de/Bilder/Models/FN-P90/pic_1.jpg

[Billabong]

Thank you Pac for explaining that. Yours did come out well.

-B