Cut down on the polygon count! It looks like you beveled some of these pieces far too many times.
This queen piece has an okay-ish curve but it’s just too high-poly for no good reason.
Dissolve some of the edge loops and fix up the flow after the fact and you can get a very similar result that isn’t as performance-intensive.
The king piece has a similar problem and it looks like you created a few too many edge loops and cuts. You have this grid of faces that runs of the whole piece, creating some odd shading.
Edit: regarding your final version, this problem is still visible on a few of the pieces.
The knight, for example:
Thank you for your feedback. You make some very valid points - which I think I have in some regard fixed. It is intentionally not shaded smooth to create a more geometric feel.
I didn’t actually bevel anything… what you see in the Queen was extruded faces to create grooves that represent her point value. What you see in the original King was randomized vertices - a failed attempt to create velvet texture of a robe.
In the end not everyone will like the set and I can accept that. I learned a lot making this set and I’m happy with how it looks. … for now anyway… lol
