RTS View questions concerning models
by Mageborn · in Torque Game Engine · 03/11/2008 (1:18 pm) · 2 replies
Hi,
I will be purchasing TGE on pay day and after looking around the forums and looking at the documentation that comes with it i have a few questions. My game will be made in an RTS style view. Looking down on the action from above, however it wont be a RTS it will play more like a dungeon Siege type of game but with guns instead of magic etc.
Now that i have explained a little about what i am planning on doing my question is with it being in rts view do the models need to be made exactly the same as with it being a fps view. Or are there some cuts you can do in relation to only seeing from certain angles etc and would models that you can purchase say for example the Adam pack, would that still work and look good from a RTS view or would new modelling need to be done?
Hope someone can help and cheers.
I will be purchasing TGE on pay day and after looking around the forums and looking at the documentation that comes with it i have a few questions. My game will be made in an RTS style view. Looking down on the action from above, however it wont be a RTS it will play more like a dungeon Siege type of game but with guns instead of magic etc.
Now that i have explained a little about what i am planning on doing my question is with it being in rts view do the models need to be made exactly the same as with it being a fps view. Or are there some cuts you can do in relation to only seeing from certain angles etc and would models that you can purchase say for example the Adam pack, would that still work and look good from a RTS view or would new modelling need to be done?
Hope someone can help and cheers.
About the author
#2
The standard "generalization" for a main character is around 2500 polys (tris), but depending on how far back you are (what your field of view is) you can drop it down further. You're texture maps will do most of the work here.
There is also LOD (level of detail) you can use to your advantage as well, so the model displayed will use fewer polygons (and smaller texture) the further away you are.
In the end, your target machine will determine your poly budget as well but the only way to find out is to test, test and keep testing. Start with one character (like Adam) and modify the textures for you testing.
Good luck :)
03/11/2008 (4:11 pm)
Hey Mageborn, there is an "advanced camera" resource available that will give you exactly what you're after. As far as optimizing the models, you'll have to experiment a bit there depending on the number of characters you expect "in shot" at any given time. The standard "generalization" for a main character is around 2500 polys (tris), but depending on how far back you are (what your field of view is) you can drop it down further. You're texture maps will do most of the work here.
There is also LOD (level of detail) you can use to your advantage as well, so the model displayed will use fewer polygons (and smaller texture) the further away you are.
In the end, your target machine will determine your poly budget as well but the only way to find out is to test, test and keep testing. Start with one character (like Adam) and modify the textures for you testing.
Good luck :)
Associate Michael Hall
Distracted...
From what I've read, I believe that the code in the RTS kit has some optimizations for rendering lots of units on the screen so that may be of benefit to you -- just a thought.
Good luck with that, and have fun.