[Nuke]

hey bob, is there a way to draw polies based on what texture they use instead of going submodel by submodel. i mean if you had 3 ships with the same texture would it be possible to render all 3 ships with a single pass to speed up rendering?

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Bobboau
he is wrong about the detail box thing though, they can be set up so that a subobject is or is not rendered based on it's position in the box, so you can have a high and low detail cockpit, or more simply, just have all the detailed bits in a seperate subobject that the hole it sits in.

No I know that will work, it's just that I don't believe that making two detail boxes for something only seen at extreme-close range is a better use of file-space than simply having a LOD1 that kicks in at a low distance.  But you are correct, and I didn't make what I was trying to say very clear

[Bobboau]

you realy think that haveing two 1000+ polly versions of the same subobject that are identical exept one has a subobject and the other dosent is more effectave use of file space than simply makeing another subobject to replace it?

[KARMA]

this mean that I can have an high poly subobject visibile from 0 to 20 mt, and a second low poly subobject that will be visible from 20 to infinite but not from 0 to 20?

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Bobboau
you realy think that haveing two 1000+ polly versions of the same subobject that are identical exept one has a subobject and the other dosent is more effectave use of file space than simply makeing another subobject to replace it?

Now that's twisting my point.  The example I'd use is Nico's Ezechiel.  The cockpit, all of the little grill-like extrusions, and all extra submodels and textures go away at LOD1, which takes the detail from at least 2000+ polys across 4 textures (counting the cockpit, the number, the pilot, and the hull) to about 1000 across 1 texture.  LOD1 is detailed enough to pass scrutiny at everything but short range, so ALL of the extra detail goes away, along with three additional render passes.  Plus it's the first of three LODs, which I would in no way advocate giving up.  LOD1 on fighters has to look good anyway, so all you're going to peel off of it regardless of whether you do subobject LODs or not is going to be the close-up detail that can't be seen from more than a few fighter-lengths away anyway (i.e. the cockpit).  Therefore, having a second cockpit model in the mesh is redundant.  IMHO.

Unless, of course, the target window no longer renders LOD1.  In which case, the LOD system may be somewhat redundant in and of itself, in the manner in which it is currently used.

[Nuke]

any chance of adding cocpit render distance to the table. then if the ship is not in range for the cockpit to be rendered, the cocpit model is no longer drawn and transparency is no longer rendered.

[Bobboau]

no, because you can do that exact thing with the submodel LOD being argued about here.

if the only diference between LOD0 and LOD1 is that LOD0 has a subobject that LOD1 does not, then that is waisting a LOD, just put a box around the one subodetail object. its easier to implement too (slightly)