Looking for someone to help with a mod...

[Task Force]

Sorry I cant help you... But it looks great.

[Tomi_099]

Look very nice, my friend, I would be happy to help you if I would not carry so much of myself back.

But I am convinced that if you continue here, we are posting meet again.
In any event,
you get a help from a good friend, as far as I can tell you.

[DivingDuck]

Moin,

@Tomi:
thanks for the introduction.

@FM:
sounds as if you are calling for me. LOL. I´m willing to help and claim to have a little bit of the knowledge you requested.


Regards,
DD

[DivingDuck]

Hey FM,

1. how many polys does the complete compartment have?
2. how many different textures do you use, if they are already in place?
   • do you think you can use the actual (stock, GWX, whatever) typeVII texture maps, so as to not introduce new maps and not to increase the size of the *.dat further
3. how many shadowmaps have you created for the compartment?

Regards,
DD

[flakmonkey]

Originally Posted by DivingDuck

Hey FM,

1. how many polys does the complete compartment have?
2. how many different textures do you use, if they are already in place?
   • do you think you can use the actual (stock, GWX, whatever) typeVII texture maps, so as to not introduce new maps and not to increase the size of the *.dat further
3. how many shadowmaps have you created for the compartment?

Regards,
DD

1, around 360`000 when triangulated (i seem to remember when i exported the viic control room model from sh3 it was upwards of 500k so by comparisson it aint too bad.) I could still cut that down a bit if i loose some of the silly details like coffee cups/oily rags and other unimportant stuff, the dent in that bucket is costing me an extra 20 polys!!!

2, right now im using half a dozen 4096*4096 maps, but when its ready for the game it should be just 2 or 3 1024*1024s.

3, Im still texturing so havent started baking shadows just yet but im thinking just a single big one for the entire room, 2048*2048, i figure its better than having 5 or 6 smaller maps.


Is it possible to import the whole room as a single mesh? I dont like the way sh3 seems to do it by breaking the room model up into lots of small parts, is that really necesarry?
Cant i just have one large obj file with the whole room that uses 2 or 3 textures and then a seperate uv2 mesh where the whole room and all its contents have just a single uv map and a lghtmap texture?


I`ll post some pics when im done texturing, not looking bad concidering im using pretty much 6 variations on generic rusty green metal!

+ Im having a little too much fun animating those engines, i know i cant use mayas keyframe animations in game but i still couldnt resist.

[DivingDuck]

1- 360.000 polys sounds like a fair count to me. We should give it a try the way it is now, with all the neat details.

2- 3 or even 4 *.tga at 1024x1024/24bit is better than expected.

3- 2048x2048 as a single shadowmap seems pretty big to me. I don´t know it for sure, but I reckon 4 1024x1024s will probably be handled with more ease by the GPU. But it would definitely be less work for me if the shadows would be put together in one map only.

If no interaction is intended with a certain object I too prefer to have as less objects as possible. But there is a limit with S3D. I faintly recall a post of Skwasjer´s regarding this matter. Therefore I guess the compartment will have to be split into several sets of objects. This however does not affect the number of maps used. I could give the untextured object a quick try.

Regarding the engine animation, I´m certain to find a way to import them to the game.

Regards,
DD

[Freakwave]

Very impressive! dont give up on it.

and a happy new year

[skwasjer]

fwiw, I have the coils as mesh animation, so if you want it, just shout...

I would recommend as less mesh animations as possible (too GPU heavy as each frame every vertex must be interpolated). Preferably use keyframe animations (matrix transforms) for rockers and arms.

As far as splitting the entire mesh up, this is definately recommended too. One big mesh will hurt performance... BADLY. It won't fit in the game anyway as index buffer that the game uses is 16 bit (65K indices). This is a limit of DAT-format (as well as older GPU cards). I recommend splitting meshes up by material type, but also type of geometry. The hull, one object. All sorts of cabinets, one or more objects (if they are spaced apart far away, another seperation may help performance) Pipes, etc, one or more objects, glass, one or more objects, and so on... Just like the devs did.

Textures, use 1024K over 2048K or even 4096K. Better use a few more smaller textures, than one large one. A large one is easier, but a few more small ones is better performance.

I do have another more expanded post regarding this somewhere. Search my profile.

If you want the game to be able to render highly detailed interiors, you will have to put some thought into importing it.

NB: I like how it all looks
NB2: Tomi, I will reply to you tomorrow!

[Tomi_099]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

fwiw, I have the coils as mesh animation, so if you want it, just shout...

I would recommend as less mesh animations as possible (too GPU heavy as each frame every vertex must be interpolated). Preferably use keyframe animations (matrix transforms) for rockers and arms.

As far as splitting the entire mesh up, this is definately recommended too. One big mesh will hurt performance... BADLY. It won't fit in the game anyway as index buffer that the game uses is 16 bit (65K indices). This is a limit of DAT-format (as well as older GPU cards). I recommend splitting meshes up by material type, but also type of geometry. The hull, one object. All sorts of cabinets, one or more objects (if they are spaced apart far away, another seperation may help performance) Pipes, etc, one or more objects, glass, one or more objects, and so on... Just like the devs did.

Textures, use 1024K over 2048K or even 4096K. Better use a few more smaller textures, than one large one. A large one is easier, but a few more small ones is better performance.

I do have another more expanded post regarding this somewhere. Search my profile.

If you want the game to be able to render highly detailed interiors, you will have to put some thought into importing it.

NB: I like how it all looks
NB2: Tomi, I will reply to you tomorrow!

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Textures, use 1024K over 2048K or even 4096K.
Better use a few more smaller textures, than one large one.
A large one is easier, but a few more small ones is better performance.

Skwasjer is right!



....................

@Skwasjer !!
NB2: Tomi, I will reply to you tomorrow![/QUOTE]
.....