System performance .dif vs .dts
by Richard Preziosi · in Torque Game Engine · 05/20/2010 (3:26 pm) · 4 replies
So was just planning to use basic really basic "models" for everything in my game. How efficient would it be to model almost everything in constructor, animated things aside of-course. I'm talking about like tables, chairs, just overly static objects.
My reasoning for this is:
1. Constructor makes it ridiculiously easy to make objects.
2. Decals actually stick and you can easily change the code to have them conform to the shape of the object. Where as, on a dts object, they only stick to the bounding box.
3. Collision is not limited to a bounding box shape, you can actually collide with the "faces" of whatever it is.
Would there be any drawbacks to this, other than still having to use a 3d program to model interactive objects. Well that and I know T3D doesn't utalize .dif files, so could never upgrade to a new engine, but that's fine by me. Also, is there any system performance difference between .dif and .dts objects?
My reasoning for this is:
1. Constructor makes it ridiculiously easy to make objects.
2. Decals actually stick and you can easily change the code to have them conform to the shape of the object. Where as, on a dts object, they only stick to the bounding box.
3. Collision is not limited to a bounding box shape, you can actually collide with the "faces" of whatever it is.
Would there be any drawbacks to this, other than still having to use a 3d program to model interactive objects. Well that and I know T3D doesn't utalize .dif files, so could never upgrade to a new engine, but that's fine by me. Also, is there any system performance difference between .dif and .dts objects?
#2
One could almost say this would be useful for Shapebase objects, especially StaticShapes, but these types of objects could possible move and/or animate from which would arise the problem of also keeping your decals conformant.
DIF performance has turned out to be slightly-to-extremely worse than DTS performance in almost all of my testing cases.
05/20/2010 (4:42 pm)
If you are using "basic" shapes/objects in T3D chances are you would be adding them to the scene as TSStatic Objects which have a 'DecalType' selector (in the Editor) with 4 choices: Bounds, CollisionMesh, None, VisibleMesh - these determine how a decal would be applied to said object.One could almost say this would be useful for Shapebase objects, especially StaticShapes, but these types of objects could possible move and/or animate from which would arise the problem of also keeping your decals conformant.
DIF performance has turned out to be slightly-to-extremely worse than DTS performance in almost all of my testing cases.
#3
That is true, I was just refering to a more basic idea of it. Constructor would be automatic, where as milkshape would not be so automatic for intricate collisions.
@Michael
Yeah T3D has some pretty awesome features for dts collision choices. And that last sentence of yours was all I needed to hear. I'm sure I could have loaded up levels with hundreds of dif or dts objects and ran tests, but I was pretty sure someone had already done this, thanks a ton.
05/20/2010 (6:45 pm)
@ThomasThat is true, I was just refering to a more basic idea of it. Constructor would be automatic, where as milkshape would not be so automatic for intricate collisions.
@Michael
Yeah T3D has some pretty awesome features for dts collision choices. And that last sentence of yours was all I needed to hear. I'm sure I could have loaded up levels with hundreds of dif or dts objects and ran tests, but I was pretty sure someone had already done this, thanks a ton.
#4
05/21/2010 (2:36 pm)
Silly me, didn't realize this was in the TGE section... in the case of TGE the DIF to DTS test results may actually be skewed towards DIF assets being more performant. You would indeed have to do some testing to determine this. Results will depend on complexity and construction (structural/detail brushes, texturing, portaling) of your assets.Quote:Steve Acaster had a couple of blogs in which he did this very thing... I think they were done in TGEa, but results could be similar.
I'm sure I could have loaded up levels with hundreds of dif or dts objects and ran tests, but I was pretty sure someone had already done this, thanks a ton.
Torque 3D Owner Thomas Bang
This is not true. A DTS-Mesh can have multiple Collision Meshes.