Can be Alo models compressed when you export them with 3DMAX?

[Nomada_firefox]

I have seen that some Evilljedi models converted by others are smaller (on megabytes) than my same model and I would like know if you can compress the alo when you export with 3DMax.

 

And one thing more about size.

 

What is better? have six dds texture files from 512x512? or have two from 2048x2048?

 

It would be interesting to know when I end General Tagerton Dominance, Warhammer and Predator EAW versions.

[jedi_consulor]

You can simply make your ALO files smaller by makign your own meshes instead of what some people *might* do where they clone the hull mesh or some thing like that. When you make your meshes you can use the optimize modifier to keep the poly count down. Also the reason why other conversions are smaller is that they lack things that your model conversions might have,.

 

Every hardpoint, mesh and texture size adds to the export size of the model. Try spending some time to make your own meshes when needing a collison mesh - dont copy it from some thing else in the model. Same with Shadow meshes and shield. cloning will make the models quite big, and high in vertices.

[Dr. Nick]

Less objects = smaller size when number of polys is constant, AFAIK

[jedi_consulor]

Well if you take some models I have seen like in the Space Units mod - the conversions dont contain shadow meshes, the less you add to a model surely would mean lower file size

[Nomada_firefox]

Thanks by the info, I will make a good work with it.

[vaders_Legion]

*Cough cough good ports with it cough*

[MajorPayne]

Nomada. I've noticed a few of EJ's direct conversions still have the LOD's meshes in the model. If the node hierarchy is setup correctly then these can help with the zom function of the game (zooming further out uses a lower LOD thereby reducing lag that the model may cause. Zooming in closer uses a higher LOD for detail). Unfortunately, in most cases the hierarchy isn't setup correctly so the LOD's aren't used. Deleting these firstly will lose quite a bit on the file size. In EJ's homeworld 2 mod he also uses several other unecessary mesh sections which can be safely deleted. Finally, and this is the time consuming bit. If your able to completely rebuild a mesh but still apply the original textures to it, then you'll be able to (most likely) lower the poly count significantly. For example. As everyone who's used Ej's models will know he created a dam fine example of the XJwing. Now I wanted to convert this model myself, but the completele poly count is close to 6000 polys. The reason for this is the model uses 2 Lower LOD's, and a shadow mesh. Removing both the shadow mesh and LOD's will loss around 2500 polys, but as a fighter 3500 (aprox) is still to high so I rebuilt the entire mesh. Its about 98% accurate to the original but considering its only a fighter it needs a lower poly count. The new poly count of the fighter is closer to 1900. Okay so its not as low as I would like, but still its around 1/3 the original, so the file size should be about half.

 

My suggestion would be to try this with capital ships. The engines are usually a good place to start. If an engine is a single cylinder of 1 stack (layer) and 36 slices then that cylinder would look lovely but adds 144 polys to the model. Okay so this isn't much, but if you consider that engines have alot more stacks in them to define curving and depth then your looking at any amount up to about 2000 per engine. RTS games don't rely on massive amounts of mesh based detail (thats left to the textures where possible) so if you can remake the engines so they have less slices (using 12 slices/sides produces a cylinder thats only 48 polys). Also if you can remove mesh created detail which won't effect the overall look of the model then that will also help.

 

Finally with the textures you have several choices. Lightmaps add about 1/3 the overall sizes of the texture file. Lower texture size means less detail but speeds up loading time. Less amounts of texture files can also speed up loading times.

 

In essence if you use lower resolution (512*512 or 256*256 pixels) textures with no light maps and a model thats around 1/2 the original poly count will produce a significantly lower file size, than one that uses the original models poly count with 2048*2048 high res textures.

[jedi_consulor]

I found that very useful - just thought I would tell you this.. Thanks for the explanation to clear this up 

[Nomada_firefox]

Thanks Mayor A Payne by the info but I have some questions.

 

What is the LOD MESH? is it the original object mesh from the model?

 

What is the "node hierarchy"? How can I change it?

 

About textures, on last XWA General Tagerton models I made 4 or 5 different texture files from 512x512 but not one or two from 2048x2048 because I have thought that game would load better them, is it correct?

[MajorPayne]

LOD stands for Level Of Detail. Its basically a way for the pc to show detail at different distances from the parent model. In all models that I've seen that use LOD's the highest one (usually 0) has the best detail and normally the highest level of detail in its textures (so think of a model with several thousand polys and high resolution texture maps). The second LOD (usually 1) is normally around half to 2/3 the poly count of LOD 0 and normally has textures one level lower in resolution. As an example:

 

There is a model of the Galaxy Class starship which was made for Bridge Commander. It had three LOD's (0,1 and 2). LOD 0 had around 10,500 polys and used 4 high resolution textures (2048*2048 pixels). LOD 1 had around 6,200 polys and used 4 intermediate resolution textures (1024*1024 pixels). LOD 2 had around 3,100 polys and used 4 low resolution textures (512*512 pixels). There are lower LOD's that can be used which would have texture resolutions to match. However, it is perfectly possible to have a low poly level model use high resolution textures.

 

The NODE HIERARCHY is the setup for hardpoints on a model. Its basically created through your normal method of linking the hardpoints/nodes together to form a "tree".

 

With regards to textures. It depends. A 2048*2048 pixel based TGA is aprox 12mb in size. Each 512*512 tga is 768kbs. Therefore 5, 512*512 tga files is going to be less than half of one single 2048*2048 so it'll be better to have the small ones. Its only useful to have high detail textures if you have several models (10 or so) which would use the same texture/textures.

 

 

Hope that helps.

[Nomada_firefox]

Thanks again.

 

I have one small question about one EAW problem that I do not know if it can be resolved making something on models, when you create one new ship very big and you select on game key "c", you can not make a near zoom, can be it resolved or eaw was not thought to work with big models?