Polygon help?

[dnkids]

I am making my own mod with BSG ships and was wondering what are the polygon limits for fighters and capital ships? Here is a sample...http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9662/scarletni2.jpg

[jonesy]

PG measures the model limits in verts and I believe they rated models in the game to have up to 17,000 without any problems.  Of course, the less verts, and subsequently polygons, that you have, the better.

 

We have been aiming for less than 1000 verts for smaller ships and fighters...typically between 500-800.  However, the game can take a lot of verts and still play well (AT-ATs have over 3000 triangles each as I recall).

[Mike.nl]

Of course, typically there are only a few AT-ATs on a map, while fighters are numerous

So you've got to consider the total vertex count, which is why fighters are indeed best at lower detail.

 

Looking at your render, I would advise putting the tubes and stuff on the back of the ship on a texture and keep the back a single, flat surface. Ditto for the L-shapes on the wings and the two black rings on the engines. The gray area on the tip of the wings might also be done on a texture, so the entire wing can be a single, simple sheared box.

If you apply proper bumpmapping, you can still get a decent looking model of out it.

And the exit of the engines is especially uninteresting, since there will be engine particles on top of them

 

Also, might I suggest making the faces on the engine part of the same smoothing group. This will get rid of the faceted look of them.

[Avenger]

I don't think there are any limits you should be worried about but 5000 polys for capital ships and 2000 for fighters is a reasonable amount. You can make more detailed models but then don't forget about LOD support.

[MajorPayne]

Okay so firstly, thats one fine looking model. Secondly, and I'm in complete agreement with Mike on this, you can't just go by one fighter or one capital ship. Theres a whole host of other things to consider:

 

The game engine also has to render:

 

- Literally hundreds of fighters, capital ships

- Weapons fire

- Space based bodies (planets, asteroids etc.etc)

 

While some people seem to only take ship models into consideration there is far more. I would estimate that the game probably renders around 2-2.5 million polys in any one game, but this also depends if any mods installed, increase the squadron amounts and population caps. Also game levels will also effect (remember that the AI builds a hell of alot more when set to hard than on easy).

 

On this direct question I would say stick with 1000 or under for fighters if your using a single LOD. My Legacy Class is around 3300 polys and I've set the game to allow 2 to be constructed. The ship plays fine in game and has no LOD's. Finally, remember pc hardware limits. If your planning on a public release make sure you specify the tested hardware and how the game ran. At least that way people can get a fair idea of how their own game will play.