Polygons in Mya

A friend and I have collaborated together to build detailed sculpted shoes and we are trying to build them in Maya using polygons *cringes*. Now, I'm well aware that polygons do not export properly for the sculpted map, but I do know there has to be a way as I once read that someone was doing (lost that post). I did read in another post that starting with a cylinder instead of a sphere could help solve that... but instead of punching out yet another shoe that won't upload properly I would like to know if there are any additional things to do so the shoe won't upload like a pile of mush.

Bluntly put: How on earth can I get polygons to work in SL?! TIA!

It works. At least I know it to work with 3dsmax sculptgenmax and any .obj->sculptmap converter if:

(lines and columns means pixel rows of the image; column#=x ; line#=y)

--it needs a plane or cylider with 32x33 vertexes: (Line 1 and 33 are the converged poles of a TYPE_SPHERE (and not converged in all other types). Lines 1 and 33 OR column 1 and 32 CAN be identical to be converged (and they will be if you start with a cylinder in the editor), or can stay open/loose. BUT: In SL for a TYPE_TORUS a gap between line 1 and 33 will be filled with polygons. And a gap between column 1 and 32 will be filled with polygons in all types except for TYPE_PLANE in sl.) (an unintentional filling looks ugly in the wrong type, like forcing a plane-shape into torus-shape...).
--it needs a pixel perfect UV map (should come automatically by creating the above object of a new uv map on it) (the slightest imperfection in the uv map causes devastating rounding errors).
--it needs vertex manupulation without adding/removing vertexes/lines/polygons. (this is the essential and boring part)
--it needs every vertex to be be an INTEGER from -128 to 128 on all 3 axes (maybe one less). So use a grid OR export to .obj and do some plain-text editing to round the numbers or expect rounding errors (rounding errors aint all bad in most cases, a prim sphere in sl is full of them, so this can be skipped for organic shapes).
--it needs lossless uploading, wich is bugged in some client versions, or displays differently/inaccurate in other clients. (these are the annoying parts)

If you suceed, then colinear polygons (with 2 vertexes at the same point) are skipped by the renderer (more than invisible), unklickable, and only outlined in editing mode.


Downsampling:
LOD just skips vertexes and keeps all others. Vertexes in the following lines AND columns are NOT skipped:
--Lines 1, 17, 33 and every 16th column (2x3) are shown in "ptretty low" lod
--1, 9, 17, 25, 33 and every 8th column (4x5) are shown in "still very low" level of detail.
--1, 5, 9, 13,17, 21, 25, 29, 33 and every 4th column (8x9) are shown in "average LOD".
--Every odd/other line and every other column (16x17) is shown in "decent lod". (this is what the preview shows you and will be seen most of the time)
--All (32x33) vertexes are shown in highest LOD. (only closeup and high end setting)

I am not sure if odd or even colunms are skipped, all the rotation and mirroring is confusing, too. My guess is that the first column is always rendered and the last column is skipped due to lod at first.