Author Topic: Am I doomed?  (Read 5242 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Deora11

  • 25
As the title does suggest, I have a dilemma concerning a project and a possibly large vertices count.

I am going through my days when I'm not working trying my best to reduce vertices as to place a ship I favour in-game ( not of my own making, just converting).

I've come to a point where I'm now rather concerned, as my polygon count may be too high. To the point:

For the entire BOW of this ship; base structure, ribs, and armour plating, comes to around 12000 vertices (not including any turrets or details, antennas, etc).
Now I'm still able to reduce some more, however I'd be lucky to land in the 8000-9000 range without destroying aesthetics too much. Considering the Sobek has around 2500 just for the Upper, mid and lower jaw, my concerns are reaching their peak. My problem is due to its size, the amount of ribs it has is huge.

I want to know if Diaspora can handle something with 3-4 times the vertices that the Sobek has (plus 3-4 times the amount of guns).
« Last Edit: December 30, 2015, 04:08:14 am by Deora11 »

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
What are you thinking of adding anyway?
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Deora11

  • 25
Im currently trying to convert the battlestar hesperides, created by tan.j

Ive also got the pacifica which i may do as well provided the hesperides pulls through.

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Well if we can get the Pegasus in game and looking beautiful I see no reason either of those ships couldn't work. The problem is that our Pegasus was built from scratch rather than trying to convert a high poly model. If you have the skills to make the ship that way, you'd probably be better off doing so. Hell, we'll even offer you a place on the team if you can do that. :p

If you can't, it's probably still worth giving it a try I'd say. One question though, do you actually have permission from tan.j to convert his ship? If you don't, we can't do anything with it officially. If you do, that opens up a lot more possibilities.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Deora11

  • 25
I dont have permission, no. However, if I am able to place this ship ingame, I will most certainely ask his permission. If he says no, then I guess it wont be released to the public. No point asking if Im unable to deliver anyway.

 

Offline Deora11

  • 25
May as well post in this thread, since the title is roughly the same.

I'm on/off during the conversion of 3 battlestars, and one thing keeps bogging me down during play testing stages......the load times.

Whilst it takes roughly 3 seconds to load the Sobek into the editor, which we all know has 277150 Polys on its Detail0; my current conversion of the Skinfaxi, which is sitting at 96824 polys, takes 44 seconds to load, whilst the 1/3 completed Hesperides take 19 seconds, which is currently at 36138 polys.

My question is what influences load times in terms of geometry, textures, cache files etc. And how does the Sobek load so quickly in comparison?

I'm am far from an expert modeller, honestly just starting out, however these battlestars have helped me through the learning process a lot, and I'd like to see them through.

(Just as a side note, I was able to obtain permission to convert these battlestars.  :D )

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Interesting. I wouldn't mind taking a look at them in that case.

As for the loading times, is this every time you add a ship? Cause old builds of FS2_Open needed to build cache models before they could start being used. The Sobek already has one of those included in the VP file. Yours would need to generate them the first time you try to use them. After that, load times should improve.

What happens if you try a newer build?
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Deora11

  • 25
Wow.

Running Diaspora on 3.7.4 reduced load times to just a few seconds. I was running it on the original Build 1 Diaspora and the load times were huge (I haven't obtained the 1.1 patch yet (laziness)). The game itself wasn't producing cache files for either ship, now it is.

Seems my problem was with builds. Stress has now subsided. Conversions can proceed with happyness. :)





  

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Good luck with that. Keep us informed of any progress you make.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

  • 211
  • The Cthulhu programmer himself!
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Running Diaspora on 3.7.4 reduced load times to just a few seconds.
[...]
The game itself wasn't producing cache files for either ship, now it is.
Wait... are you saying 3.7.4 is generating cache files? Because, uh... 3.7.4 doesn't have any code for reading or writing them.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
The cache files were probably there from the old build and just not spotted. Anything in the cache folder can safely say deleted now.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]