[Sushi]

I know this has probably been answered before, but I can't find it...

What is the max Poly count that FS will take for a fighter? I've been trying to keep count down, but the current version I have has 300 polys, and I'm not even close to being finished yet!  

Any suggestions on how to lower count? I'm using 3DS3.

Oh yeah, here's a few early renders of the GTF Actaeon, the ship in question...where can I take out polys?

   
   
   

Thanks for any help.  

[EDIT]
Oh yeah. the other question is, where(if anywhere) should I add polys?
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Sushi- the OTHER white meat!
Accelerate your game-Velocity Mod

[This message has been edited by Sushi (edited 04-17-2001).]

[Nico]

Well, if you do as I do, my poly counts is between 150 and 800 for a fighter. Nobody talks about the vertice count, but it's as important, (same numbers than polys)).
If you wondered about map counts, well I heard of fighters using 16 (!) maps.


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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[The Claw]

It's about 800 per sub-object, and I really wouldn't advice having more than one sub-object for a fighter...
 But I'd say aim for about 400 max. But that's just personal opinion.

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"Supernova, ya supernova, supernova goes pop
supernova, ya think it's over but the supernova don't stop" PM5K
Death:"Arnold Judas Rimmer... your life is over. You will travel with me to the-"
#knees death in the groin#
Rimmer:"Remember matey, it's only the good that die young"
Kudoth, god of pointless educational programs.

[Pez]

300 polys should be OK. The FS2 fighters range from app. 250 to 550 polys. So you should be safe but as you say: it the texture who makes or breaks the model (atleast low poly models).

[Sushi]

Cool...looking at it more, I think I'm going to take off some of the cockpit polys. That's going to be pretty much solid black anyways, and the extra detail would just be wasted.  

Alright...goal is to have a total no greater than 350 polys.

Then I have to figure out the texturing. Groan...  

[EDIT:] Updating pics to show new low-poly cockpit.

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Sushi- the OTHER white meat!
Accelerate your game-Velocity Mod

[This message has been edited by Sushi (edited 04-17-2001).]

[Bobboau]

I would poly reduce the back, but remember that the back is the part of the ship that is going to be seen the most. max maps is one, if you make it with 37,000 maps i will come over there and smack you with a trout, becase your not trying hard enuogh  , seriusly it takes about a week to learn.

that model looks like it shouldn't have more than 350-400 polys, you need to do basic poly reduction, wich involves welding edges to make a bunch of squares into a bunch of triangles.

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Bobboau, bringing you products that work.............. in theory

[JarC]

 

Originally posted by Bobboau:
I would poly reduce the back, but remember that the back is the part of the ship that is going to be seen the most.

hmmm...I'd opt to reduce polycount in the bottom and front in that case, and instead add polys to the back to simulate piping running on the outside of the engines, that's hard to emulate with just texture if that's the part of the ship that's the most often in your view...



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JarC (ICQ) "Dave? Will I dream?"
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[Nico]

I don't agree with Bobboau about the only one map per ship. FS2 handles very well multi maps on a single model, and comps are now powerful enough to follow. Using multiple maps makes the ships looks better, because you have a better resolution. Take the YF19 I made for the robotech mod, and give it only one map, it won't look the same believe me. And it as nothing to do with the fact I didn't try enough, man. A black line on a 256*256 map al=pplied only on the nose of a ship will look as a black line. the same line put on the corner of a pic where the nose as been drwan to gain some place will look like a stretched stain. On my last model, yopu can count the rivets, and it works smoothly in FS2 ( and I don't have a geforce gts2 mounted in a Pentium 1.4 GH believe me).

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Bobboau]

how many of those fighters did you have on screen and what was the asosiated poly count, and if you are able to could you check the frame rate of normal FS ships and yours in comparasin (with about thirty of ships on screen, not just one).

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Bobboau, bringing you products that work.............. in theory

[Nico]

Well, I don't know? ask Max, he got's most of my ships. But I tried a battle of endor mission with some of my models and I noticed no difference, so... He, computers and gfx cards have evolved  

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Sushi]

I just updated the pics again, and this will probably be my final model version. Oh, wait... I forgot about the engine glow polys. I assume I need to make a structure for that as well, right?

My other question, asked in the Q&A thread, is should I boolean the whole thing together now? Will it really matter if I don't?



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Sushi- the OTHER white meat!
Accelerate your game-Velocity Mod

[Nico]

mhh, looks like fins and wings are intersecting with the main hull... beware the clipping, man  

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Sushi]

Yah, they intersect, as does the cockpit, the wings, the missile bays on the bottom, and the engines. Will that cause problems?  

Almost forgot- here's another image.  

   

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Sushi- the OTHER white meat!
Accelerate your game-Velocity Mod

[This message has been edited by Sushi (edited 04-19-2001).]

[Sushi]

Three Questions:

1. I need an engine-glow structure, right? This isn't covered in the ship creation tutorial...

2. Would it work to do all of my texture alignment in 3ds3 instead of TS? I know I could map the faces just fine, I just don't know if the format for the textures is the same- in 3ds3, the textures are integrated into the model file.

3. What's a good place to start for textures? I could rip them out of FS2's VP files, but if I wanted to create them from scratch, where should I start? Paintbrush?  

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Sushi- the OTHER white meat!
Accelerate your game-Velocity Mod

[JarC]

 

Originally posted by Sushi:
Three Questions:

1. I need an engine-glow structure, right? This isn't covered in the ship creation tutorial...

Yep, call it thrusterXX (replace the XX with 01, 02, etc if more than one or leave off altogether if just one), then use one of the thruster ani's to texture it with.



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JarC (ICQ) "Dave? Will I dream?"
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[Starwing]

For drawing textures, look at theX-Wing: Alliance Upgrade Project
They have a fairly good texture drawing tutorial.

[Nico]

Yes its a MUCH better idea to map under 3ds3, the coordinates are kept when converted to cob files (you may have to apply the maps again, but the UVW mapping will still be there).

"in 3ds3, the textures are integrated into the model file."
??? I'm using this one for 7 years now, and I can assure you that they dont, maps are along like in any other 3ds prog.

Ho, yes, about the intersecting face: yes, it's wrong: they will show through the hull in FS2 (looks wrong, if you ask me).

For mapping, I'm using a crappy prog nobody knows and PSP5 (yea, I know, it's old   ).



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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Warlock]

One good point is that if the model has a fairly hefty polycount it can still work well, just be mindful when using it in missions and don't slap 20 of them out at any given time.

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Warlock
 
DeathAngel Squadron
CO

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[Ypoknons]

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[morris13]

 

Originally posted by JarC:
Yep, call it thrusterXX (replace the XX with 01, 02, etc if more than one or leave off altogether if just one), then use one of the thruster ani's to texture it with.

How do you texture something with an .ani? Do you do this in truespace? Also, do you have to name it in Truespace as well?