DTS help -> will my Frame/Second decrease too much?

#1 I'd post your question in the forums for the engine you are using, or at least tell us what engine you are using in your question.

If you are using TGEA, then .dts is becoming the prefered option so that polysoup collision can be used.

If you are using TGE, then the collision could be less than fun to figure out.

The FPS question is a hard question because it really comes down to target hardware and what you consider (high poly).

If your levels are large, then use LOD to scale the models down at a distance. If the levels keep the player in close proximity of the building, LOD may not help.

#2 DTS Collision
DTS can support multiple collision routines: line to polygon, polygon to polygon, etc. The drawback happens when your DTS shape is wildly complex (having 20,000 polygons for instance). Having dozens of these massively complex shapes in your scene will result in performance hits.

DTS Rendering
Torque even has entirely separate rendering systems for each format. DTS models can support static and animated shapes, allow for mounting of one shape to another, and have their meshes manipulated via source code calls. This is obviously the format you want to use for avatars, vehicles, and any other object that needs more interactivity and "flash."

( Ref: TGEa Documentation and Reference. )

Seems to me you can use your DTS format for your buildings if you wish, but they may need to keep a close watch on the number of polygons for the sake of keeping your FPS rate.

#3 Hi again!

@Brian: I am using TGE, so I know that I don't have PolySoup capabilities, but there is a PolySoup tutorial for implementing it into TGE, I just don't know where.

@Scott: You said "the drawback happens when your DTS shape is widly complex (20,000 polys)"...my "most complex" shape is no more than 5,000 polys.

Just to give you a round idea though, in one area, I have:

4x Houses with average of 4,300 polys each

1x Bell Tower with aprox. 3,700 polys

and other "ambient items" like rocks, lilly-pads, low-poly bridge and warf (about 30 polys each)

From Ross

PS. IN case you think that there is not much "stuff" in this area...because it is a fantasy game, I get the "amazing landscape effect", that you want in all games from the terrain, textures and waterfalls/rainbows

Thanks a lot for all your help!

#4 Those items won't effect your frame rate as long as their bounding boxes aren't touching.

#5 Hi Mike!

Thanks soo much, because I was getting wprried that I would need to re-model ALL my houses and buildings in Hammer, aswell as learning how to use Hammer

From Ross

Thankyou soo much for all of you guys' help

PS. Have a Merry Christmas!

#6 The way I see it - if you can go inside of the object and walk on interior or exterior parts of the object, use DIFs. Otherwise DTS shapes are the way to go.

I've seen enough experienced people with problems on the IRC with polysoup that I'd be hesistant to go there unless you really understood the engine.

The performance benefit of using DIFs can be huge depending on the game. Like if you have a house with 500 objects inside of it. With DTS all 500 objects are always rendered if the house is in view. With a DIF (properly portalized) those 500 objects are not rendered.

There are other considerations too. If the buildings can be created/destroyed, DTS is probably going to be easier to work with. DIFs have lightmaps on them which can be generated when they are placed - but its not straightforward. DIF ground shadowing is also problematic in this case.

Good luck with whatever path you pick.

#7 @Jason

Thanks for the tip, but for me, I don't need to have the "500 objects" inside, so the Frame rate is not to much a problem.

I am using DTS for buildings, because trying to make a house the shape of a gum nut, with large leaves on top to make the roof in constructor or another DIF making programme...is not a pretty sight ; )

From Ross