Retopo Loco is a Blender add-on that turns a messy, high-poly mesh into

clean, production-ready quad topology — right inside Blender, in a couple of

clicks. No server, no internet connection, no separate download: a genuine

cross-field quad solver ships bundled inside the add-on itself, so

installing it is the only setup step.

This README covers installation, how the tool actually works, what each

setting does, and some tips for getting the best results.

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- **Blender 4.2 or newer.**

- **Windows** — fully tested.

- **macOS** — Apple Silicon (M-series) only; there is no Intel build.

- **Linux** — needs a real desktop session (X11 or Wayland with XWayland).

  It will not run over a headless/SSH-only session.

- About 160 MB of disk space once installed (the engine is bundled for all

  three platforms at once, so the same download works everywhere).

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1. Download `RetopoLoco.zip`. **Do not unzip it** — Blender installs it

   straight from the zip.

2. In Blender, go to **Edit > Preferences > Add-ons**.

3. Click the dropdown arrow in the top-right corner of the Add-ons window

   (or the **Install...** button, depending on your Blender version) and

   choose **Install from Disk**.

4. Select `RetopoLoco.zip` and confirm.

5. If the checkbox next to "Retopo Loco" isn't already ticked, tick it to

   enable the add-on.

That's it — the solver engine is already inside the package, so there's

nothing else to download, configure, or point at an external tool.

In the 3D Viewport, press **N** to open the sidebar, then look for the

**Retopo** tab. That's the add-on's entire interface — one panel, no

sub-menus to dig through.

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1. **Select a mesh** in your scene (it needs to be a Mesh object).

2. Open the **Retopo** tab in the sidebar.

3. Pick a **Retopo Mode** (see below).

4. Set your **Target Quads**, or just use the suggested value shown right

   under it.

5. Optionally turn on **Bake Material and Normal to New Geometry** (see

   below).

6. Click **Retopologize**.

While it runs, you'll see a real progress bar — the percentage and current

phase come straight from the solver itself, plus a rough time-remaining

estimate once it has enough data to make one. You can hit **Cancel** at any

point to stop it immediately.

When it finishes, a new object named `_Quad` appears in the

scene, in the exact same position, rotation and scale as the original — so

the before and after sit right on top of each other. Your original mesh is

**hidden, not deleted**, so you can toggle it back on in the Outliner at any

time to compare, or just hit **Ctrl+Z** to undo the whole operation in one

step (Retopo Loco pushes a single, clean undo step, not a handful of messy

intermediate ones).

You don't need to apply your object's scale/rotation/location first —

Retopo Loco already accounts for your object's full transform, so the

result lands in the right place regardless.

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Retopo Loco deliberately doesn't hand you a wall of cross-field tuning

sliders. Instead there are four fixed, ready-to-use presets:

| Mode | Best for | What it does |

| --- | --- | --- |

| **Bedrock** | Simple, blocky, architectural shapes | Steady, even quad flow with no adaptive density or edge stretching — a plain, reliable foundation. |

| **Balanced** | Most everyday assets | The general-purpose default: denser topology where the shape needs it, longer quads where it doesn't. |

| **Chiseled** | Hard-surface, mechanical, man-made objects | Keeps sharp edges crisp and deliberate instead of softening them — good for anything that should look "cut," not "melted." |

| **Sculpted** | Organic, sculpted, creature/character forms | Soft, flowing quad flow that favors smooth curves over sharp corners — built for anything that came out of a sculpting session. |

If you're not sure where to start, **Balanced** is a safe default for

almost anything. Switch to **Chiseled** or **Sculpted** once you know which

direction your specific mesh needs.

This is the quad count the solver aims for — it lands close to this number,

not exactly on it, since the actual result depends on the shape it's

working with. Retopo Loco shows a **Suggested Quads** value under the field

based on your source mesh's own triangle count, which is a reasonable

starting point for most assets. Push it up for more topology detail, or

down for a lighter result — there's no fixed "right" number, it depends on

what the mesh is for (a background prop needs far fewer quads than a

hero character).

Off by default. When enabled, this runs **after** the quad solver has

already finished — it treats your original mesh as a high-poly "cage" and

bakes its appearance down onto the new low-poly mesh's own UVs, via Cycles:

- **Base Color**

- **Roughness**

- **Metallic**

- **Normal** (a full tangent-space normal map, capturing surface detail —

  bark, wrinkles, panel lines, whatever your source mesh actually has —

  so the simplified quad mesh doesn't just look flat and faceted)

The result is packed into a brand-new material assigned to the retopo'd

mesh, ready to use immediately — no manual texture setup required.

A few things worth knowing:

- **It only touches the new mesh's material — never its geometry.** The

  solver has already finished and written the final topology before this

  step even starts; enabling or disabling this checkbox cannot change the

  shape of the result.

- **It only does anything if your source mesh already has a material.** If

  it doesn't, the bake step reports a failure but the retopologized mesh

  itself is still produced normally — a failed bake never throws away the

  actual deliverable.

- **It adds real time to the run.** This is a genuine Cycles bake across

  four 2K image channels, not a shortcut — expect it to noticeably

  outlast the solve itself, especially on detailed meshes. If you're

  iterating quickly on topology and don't need materials yet, leave it off

  and turn it on for your final pass.

---

- **Iterate on topology first, bake last.** Turn off the material bake

  while you're dialing in Retopo Mode and Target Quads — it's the slowest

  part of the process by far, and you don't want to pay that cost on every

  test run.

- **Compare, don't guess.** Since the original is only hidden, toggle its

  visibility in the Outliner (or just undo) to flip between before and

  after until you're happy with the result.

- **Match the mode to the mesh, not the other way around.** A hard-surface

  prop run through Sculpted will round off edges you wanted crisp; an

  organic character run through Chiseled can look faceted. When in doubt,

  start from Balanced and compare against the alternative that matches

  your subject.

- **Give it a sensible target quad count.** Extremely high targets on an

  already-simple mesh mostly just add solve time for no visual benefit;

  extremely low targets on a complex mesh can lose the shape entirely. The

  suggested value is a reasonable anchor to adjust from.

- **A material bake needs a material to bake from.** If you want textures

  transferred, make sure the *original* mesh has an actual material with

  something in its Base Color/Roughness/Metallic inputs before you retopo —

  an untextured or material-less source has nothing to bake.

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| Problem | What to do |

| --- | --- |

| "Engine files missing" error | Reinstall the add-on — the bundled solver files didn't make it into your Blender install correctly. |

| Retopologize button is greyed out | Make sure you have a **Mesh** object selected and active (not an empty, camera, curve, etc.). |

| It's taking a long time | Lower **Target Quads**, and make sure **Bake Material and Normal to New Geometry** is off if you don't need it yet — the bake is the most time-consuming part. |

| macOS refuses to run the engine | The add-on clears the quarantine flag automatically on first run. If it's still blocked, allow it once via **System Settings > Privacy & Security**. |

| Nothing happens on Linux | Retopo Loco needs a real graphical desktop session — it won't run over a plain headless/SSH connection. |

| "Material bake failed: ..." in the result message | The retopologized mesh was still produced successfully — only the optional bake step failed. The most common cause is the source mesh having no material assigned. |

| A solve is stuck for a very long time | Every run has a 60-minute hard limit and will report a timeout if it's exceeded; you can also hit **Cancel** at any point before that. |

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**Edit > Preferences > Add-ons**, find Retopo Loco, and remove it from

there like any other add-on.