HTC.....Poly Count

[Strip]

HTC,
    Bear with my graphic ignorance please.....I am creating quiet a few custom objects for project of mine.
What I am looking for is some sort of reference. IE How many poly's I can expect a normal users computer
to endure. Right now I have a tower setup that is 2800 surfaces and 3800 vertices. Granted its a bit
extreme and over modeled, the hand railing alone is 60% of it.

     With my basic knowledge of graphics I couldn't even tell you if thats a high or low count tho. However,
at high speed, making close passes my computer runs it fine. Unfortunately, (depending on how you view
it) my computeris probably in the upper third of AcesHigh users. What runs well on my computer perhaps
wont on 2 out 3 other computers. Most, okay all, of my background is in 3D cad software, which for planar
objects (like towers) gives me just enough knowledge to be dangerous.





Edit: This is another one of my models......its just got a basic texture on it right now.

      This was taken about half way through building the tower but shows the detail I was getting into. It now has a
superstructure, radio antenna, basic flag and another hand rail. Before I mentioned even completed my computer
only drops a few frames compared to a normal large field. Its also important to note that the terrain will be devoid
of the normal trees. The field will also have none of the ack, troops, ordnance or hanger buildings. It wont be total
devoid but you get the idea, I hope.

How many poly's should I try to keep in view at one time?

Roughly how many polys is a CV group?

Should I just try to find a test mule to see where my airfield stands?

I am walking blindly through a mine field of the graphic world. Creating a good model is not my main problem....its making
sure most of the players can use it is. Any words of wisdom are welcomed....

<S> Strip

[Waffle]

could do the top one with 14 polys - with alpha texture for rails instead of 3d rails...

bottom one with 27 polys, if you use 10 sided cones.

2800 polys  is a little high

Less is always better.

I think there's a quote along these lines: "Anyone came make the simple complicated... creativity is making the complicated simple."

[Kazaa]

Waffle,

How many poly's would B-29 consist of?

[hitech]

That would be ok if you were doing an entire airplane. For a tower it is about 10 - 50 times to many.

The key to modeling is less is more. Also you must is what is it used for. If no one would ever see the handle rail from closer than 100 Ft, what is the use of spending many faces on it.

The other thing that drastically effects performance is number of state changes, I.E. just changing 1 color or texture on some objects can make them take twice as long to draw.

There never is a hard and fast number of how many to use, it is always use the absolute minimum you can use and have an acceptable look.

HiTech

[Waffle]

Waffle,

How many poly's would B-29 consist of?

six.




10.382 million for the nook.

[Kazaa]

 

[fudgums]

six.




10.382 million for the nook.

[Strip]

I can imagine! But the hand rails wouldn't be round with pretty curved corners. Those are 16 sided rails
and corners that are bends rather than being square. Not that they needed to be but it was test model,
I wanted to see what it took to do what I want.

That and it was a test to see if I could model in a graphic software as well as I could in CAD software.

The bottom one is about 160 polys but its 32 sided and in four segments. You cant see it but its not a
perfect cone. It bulges in some areas like the real thing, probably over done again. I am really looking for
a good reference, how far is to far?

I can imagine this dilemma is the nightmares of many a programmer.

Edit: Wow I type slow I guess....lol....replies to come.

Strip

[Strip]

That would be ok if you were doing an entire airplane. For a tower it is about 10 - 50 times to many.

The key to modeling is less is more. Also you must is what is it used for. If no one would ever see the handle rail from closer than 100 Ft, what is the use of spending many faces on it.

The other thing that drastically effects performance is number of state changes, I.E. just changing 1 color or texture on some objects can make them take twice as long to draw.

There never is a hard and fast number of how many to use, it is always use the absolute minimum you can use and have an acceptable look.

HiTech

That bold bit tells me a lot....

The highly detailed tower was probably a pipe dream from the start, I knew it. Most of the railing was set at MaxDist=800 (or less) and it didnt stutter when drawn. In fact I was thrilled the first time I saw it in the game and could buzz the tower. Just getting into the game, without crashing or stutters, was a huge ego boost. With my knowledge beforehand I was going bonkers trying to figure it out. The corners alone account for 1500 polys and were in the process of going away, before this. The railing was another 800, vertical posts another 1,000. The tower itself was maybe 280-300 so from your statements that should generally be acceptable. Without a frame of reference I couldnt tell if I was pushing the line or so far over I couldnt see it. As it was I needed binocs to see the darn thing.....

I knew I was in deep when I saw the terrain.res file at 11 mb!
 


Thanks for the help....

<S> Strip

[Strip]

Here is my arcane, resource intensive turd next to Waffles work of art. Its finished model wise....

Edit: Finished meaning what I was trying to do.....not necessarily what would work.




Piss poor shot setup and no textures but you get the idea. I have not been able to update anything in the TE since update.

[Kazaa]

Don't be so hard on yourself Strip, it looks really nice.

[Saxman]

Strip,

If you REALLY want to keep the detailed railing, try reducing from 16 faces around to 4, (turn it so you have a diamond shape) or even 3. You can still get the rounded corners look without needing more than that.

[TequilaChaser]

wondering how many hours worth of time you got into making these objects?

looks good from here.......also looks like you working on something for some kind of plane racing league perhaps?  

[Kazaa]

BTW Strip, what software did you use?

[Strip]

Don't be so hard on yourself Strip, it looks really nice.

Thanks Kazaa, confidence has not been my strong suit in this particular adventure. I used AC3D which I just bought for 79.99 USD, a fair value I think.

wondering how many hours worth of time you got into making these objects?

looks good from here.......also looks like you working on something for some kind of plane racing league perhaps?  

If I was to do it over, and knew the dimensions maybe 3-4 hours. I have learned some tricks to keep poly count to a bare minimum. If I was to go that route add another hour or two. In fact I will probably do it over using what I have learned. With the learning process and measuring pictures etc. it took me about 20 hours the first time. Another three or four to learn the interface between AC3d, the Object Editor and the Terrain Editor. The pylons took only about 5 minutes to physically draw. Overall there is less than an hour invested in it. That might all sound impressive but even the tower is a basic 3d object. No compound curves or blends to speak and its totally planar, every surface is just 4 vertices. Someone like Waffle could do five of these in a day dream.

The tower is for a 100% scale (dimensionally anyway) Reno/Stead Airport on a desert type terrain for circuit racing. The pylon is slated, I hope, for a Red Bull Air Race inspired league formed by Notch. He is currently running his on normal terrains if anyone is interested. Second Sunday of the month I think....see the AHXARL forum for better info tho.

Strip,

If you REALLY want to keep the detailed railing, try reducing from 16 faces around to 4, (turn it so you have a diamond shape) or even 3. You can still get the rounded corners look without needing more than that.

I was thinking of that Saxman and it certainly something I am going to look at. The alpha stencil works, but looks really bad compared to somethings, hence my wanting to keep it. I might do a 8 (or 6) face rail with no corners which would be around 500-600 polys total. Even on the real tower the corners are hardly noticed or visible.

Strip