3d model size and framerate/slowdown
by Tobiah Marks · in Torque Game Builder · 09/21/2006 (1:49 am) · 3 replies
Hi there.
My team and I are making a platformer in TGB, and we plan to have everything beside the distant background to be 3d models. The objects, enemies, hero, and the platforms themselves will be 3d.
My questions are;
How many 3d objects can we have in level and/or on screen at any 1 time? What kind of load/slowdown can we expect? Does torque only handle what is on screen, or will the processor slow down from objects off screen?
...and most importantly, How many polys should the models be? I need to be able to tell my art team some size limits for the models so they know what they can or can't do.
I need to get my art team working on assets if we're going to hit our deadline, so that question is really the reason for my post.
I figured instead of taking objects of various poly size in-game and testing, one of you fine people might already know the answer.
Thank you very much for any insight/help =)
-Tobiah
My team and I are making a platformer in TGB, and we plan to have everything beside the distant background to be 3d models. The objects, enemies, hero, and the platforms themselves will be 3d.
My questions are;
How many 3d objects can we have in level and/or on screen at any 1 time? What kind of load/slowdown can we expect? Does torque only handle what is on screen, or will the processor slow down from objects off screen?
...and most importantly, How many polys should the models be? I need to be able to tell my art team some size limits for the models so they know what they can or can't do.
I need to get my art team working on assets if we're going to hit our deadline, so that question is really the reason for my post.
I figured instead of taking objects of various poly size in-game and testing, one of you fine people might already know the answer.
Thank you very much for any insight/help =)
-Tobiah
About the author
#2
We are using 3d models vs. 2d sprites because they have a differnet look/feel and we can do 3d smooth animations easily without having to have a bunch of 2d images. Plus, TGB has 3d model support so... why not? You tell me, is it going to chug/not work?
Where we can we will use 2d art, but we want to plan for a lot of 3d in terms of figuring out these questions I just posted.
09/21/2006 (2:00 am)
Well, because it is a 2d platforming side-scrolling game, with left/right/up/down movement and locked camera, we decided to save time and already use the easier to handle TGB (none of us are torque experts), as the only thing that can change in the move to 3d would be full camera movement, which we don't need/wouldn't to worrant a lot more work. We are using 3d models vs. 2d sprites because they have a differnet look/feel and we can do 3d smooth animations easily without having to have a bunch of 2d images. Plus, TGB has 3d model support so... why not? You tell me, is it going to chug/not work?
Where we can we will use 2d art, but we want to plan for a lot of 3d in terms of figuring out these questions I just posted.
#3
It's very difficult to give you hard numbers on how many polys per model, etc., since we really don't know much about your scene state, average number of rendered 3D objects on screen at any one time, or anything of that nature.
In general, in a 3D FPS game, a poly budget per model of approx 2k-3k has worked well for many games, but it's also important to take into account your target platform technology as well. Are you shooting for 2000 AD era computers, or 2007? Those types of decision factors are important as well.
09/21/2006 (10:26 pm)
TGB isn't going to do much in the way of off-screen processing culling (none as far as I am aware), so if you have 100's of off screen animated 3D models, you're going to be using up cycles animating them (although obviously not rendering them--it will only render what's on screen). It's very difficult to give you hard numbers on how many polys per model, etc., since we really don't know much about your scene state, average number of rendered 3D objects on screen at any one time, or anything of that nature.
In general, in a 3D FPS game, a poly budget per model of approx 2k-3k has worked well for many games, but it's also important to take into account your target platform technology as well. Are you shooting for 2000 AD era computers, or 2007? Those types of decision factors are important as well.
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