[RandomTiger]

Im considering getting a modeler from outside the community to make a custom Freespace ship for me.

Since I am a coder rather than a MOD'er was hoping you guys could give me some guidance. This guy will be using 3DMax (assuming that works) and I gather that he shouldn’t use non flat surfaces or any advanced features that dont result in simple polys.

I also know there a sub-object limit, what is that in terms of the original FS2 exe?

Is there anything else I should know, vertex limits? Etc.
What is the maximum total poly count I could consider. I don’t care about speed currently, I just need to be sure it will just work.

Is this a silly idea and I should forget it or can he get by on a set of rules?

Any insight or links to relevant pages would be greatly appreciated.

[Black Wolf]

Admittedly, this is based on second hand information, but what I tghink I know about modding says that there's a poly limt of around 5000-5500 and no vert limit. Advanced and convex polys are also a no no. Subobject limit is around 110.

[KARMA]

i think you already know most of these "rules", btw:
non flat polys,
no intersection (will not crash the game but will generate heavy clipping),
verts x face<20,
no convex faces, no colinear verts (sometimes they work but usually not, btw you can use triangulization if you don't want to spend time in stabilizing the mesh, but it will increase pcount)
possibly no double verts/edges (pcs sometimes crash with those)
possibly no convex parts (like for examples engine inlets) that can cause some zbuffer, btw it depend by the sizes of those parts(so engine inlets in fighters will cause more probably problems than engine inlets in capships)
you can use fred or fsview (i'm not able to have fsview correctly working btw) to debug the mesh
pcount per subobject between 750 and 1050 (800-840 usually is  good)  
around 100 subobject limit (it depends by the version)
overall pcount can be very high, around 9000 i think but not sure, btw modelview32 will not work with pofs with a pcount over iirc 3000 polys
all LODs (pcs convert up to 6 lods, but kazan said fs2 will use only with the first 4, i never tested), rotating objects, destroyable objects, turretts, debris, thruster plumes, shields must be subobjects, hyerachy will tell the game what a subobject is/do
shields must be triangulized and non uvmapped
you will need a truespace version to make hyerachy (for examples check bobbau's manual to pcs, karajoma and ipandrews manuals to fs2 modding)
almost any texture size usually work, but fred will work only with squared textures of 64, 128 or 256 px edge unless you are using fs2open or registry hack (that are necessary for higher res textures)
textures must be pcx of 256 colours

this is ipandrews manual: http://underworld.fortunecity.com/pacman/106/fs2mods/shipcreationguide/shipcreationguide.html
i don't have links to karajoma's, bobbau's and rampages manuals, but i think those links are in their signs

[karajorma]

I think karma has got it down pretty much correct. I'd stick to ~750 polys for a subobject as above that risks problems while below is always fine.

I believe BW is right about the poly limit but I think that's a converter limit rather than being a limit in FS2 (not that it matters if you can't convert the ship )

[Nico]

820 polys per subobject is fine, that's the limit I use.

[RandomTiger]

Thanks very much everyone

[aldo_14]

I think you can push it to 850...I'm sure I've done that before.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by aldo_14
I think you can push it to 850...I'm sure I've done that before.

The impression I've got is that some ships will work with that number and some won't.

Then again you've converted more ships than I have

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by karajorma


The impression I've got is that some ships will work with that number and some won't.

Then again you've converted more ships than I have

Well, I hope to hell I'm right, cos I've got to convert a transport with an 844 poly hull (crosses fingers)

[KARMA]

iirc i converted a 1090 mesh once (or was 1009? boh, anyway it was over 1000)

[Raptor]

Originally posted by Black Wolf
Admittedly, this is based on second hand information, but what I tghink I know about modding says that there's a poly limt of around 5000-5500 and no vert limit. Advanced and convex polys are also a no no. Subobject limit is around 110.

110 subobjects max?

'oh dear, oh dear......
......
...
Oh wait! It can work, but as long as there is no debris......'

Sorry, thinking aloud:nervous: