Polycounts and LODs Resources

[eggman]

Here is an old post from Arch Enemy, a very experienced BF coder and one of the original Project Reality Devs regarding polycount.

NOTE: Polycount guidelines are not as critical as hacing the correct meshes.

eg: going over on ploycount by 15% is not near as impactful to game performance as not having appropriate LoDs with the models.

The polycount guide that I am making has as reference the BF2 models polycount.

Weapons:

Info:
-We got some fantastic 1st PV models however, no 3rd PV models at all, We can't use the 1st PV model as 3rd PV because the polycount needs to be 2x lower.
-We got no Ironsight mesh, which is also needed.
-Weapon models have 2 lods (lod0, lod1), lod0 are changed by lod1 at about 50-100 meters

What should be done:
Besides the 1stPV model 3 other meshes should be modelled:
-3rdPV mesh
-Iron sight Mesh
-Lod1 mesh (which will only show up when you are 50-100 meters away from the gun)

Polycount:
IronSight mesh:
-1000-1100 for all weapons
lod0 1st PV mesh:
-Between 3000-3500 for assault/mg
-1500-2000 for pistols
lod0 3rd PV mesh:
1000-1300 for assault/mg
700-900 for pistols
lod1 3rd PV mesh:
200-300 for assault/mg
150-200 for pistols



Vehicles:


Info:
Alot of things are missing here, we need wreck meshes, lod meshes, collision meshes.

What should be done:
-1stPerson mesh, (not only for airplanes, but for all vehicles, including MBT, APC, transport etc.)
-lod0 mesh (We already got this one)
-lod1 mesh
-lod2 mesh
-lod3 mesh
-lod0 Wreck mesh
-lod1 Wreck mesh
-lod2 Wreck mesh
-Collision decal mesh
-Collision physic mesh
-Collision Soldier mesh
Yes, I know it might seem alot, but really we don't have the choice


Polycount:
(1st PV mesh, IronSight, 3rd PV mesh, lowdetailed mesh)

[eggman]

GENERATING LODs QUICKLY:

1) Make 3 copies of your model
2) Apply the modifier 'multires' to a copy
3) Click generate
4) Adjust vert percentage to get desired result (25% for lod3, 50% for lod2, 75% for lod1 for example)
5) Collapse the stack/convert the model to poly/mesh
6) Repeat for each model

[e-Gor]

That 25/50/75% is only a guideline. Make sure that lod1 looks good - spend extra time manually on it if you need, as people with low graphics settings see this close up.

[brummett]

Very helpful Egg.

Thanks a bunch for this!

-Brummett

[IronTaxi]

how about building counts for polys? general guidelines.. and the PR specific material directories would be nice as well...

[jarleif]

I find it easiest to setup/create LODs after i setup the hierachy for export. Also I believe our models at USI are a good amount above the recommended Polycounts, and we dont seem to have many problems. I want to say our abrams is close to 10,000 polies. I have found that polycount of the col1 and col2 are very important. You want to get them to be as low as you can. For col0 we just duplicate the LOD0

[eggman]

Good advice Jarleif, tyvm. The USI vehicles look outstanding.

From everything I have come to understand polycount is not that big a deal with BF2, but getting the right heirarchy and polycounts in the LoDs is important to performance.

[jarleif]

Polycounts on some of our vehicles(lod0)
M1A1=9805
T72=7575
M2A2=9663
M551=87027
Humvee Tow = 6030
Humvee Avenger=6100
A10=6313
Su25=6461
Hind=7235
apache=7170

as you can see ours are fairly high, but it still runs fine. Like i said before the important parts are the lods, and col 1 and 2

[brummett]

And to think I was going through such suffering, pain and anguish over those polys for the sniper rifle...

Yeah, smart polys are always a good thing but I would love to see more curavture in general on games models. Guess it's getting less and less relevant which is awesome!

-Brummett

[eggman]

From what I have seen game engines and PC power has realy done a lot to eliminate the bottleneck on polycounts. As noted the LoDs and the engine's ability to scale LoDs appropriately help a lot.

Not saying you can use hi poly models everywhere heh.. but the intense focus on being under polycount guidelines is likely best spent on the other issues that Jarleif raised.

Additionally a LOT of detail can be added through textureing techniques.

[Desertfox]

Is this taking into account attachment like the RWS? Or is this just stand-alone with attachments and tri count doesn't matter when you add say the RWS?

[Kaijleor]

OK, got the limits

[Hauteclocque]

Hi,

Can someone made a new spreadsheet with the tricount this time ? I mean an average for each type of vehicle, weapon, etc, even small things like grenades.
It would be very useful since you ask us to tell for a model numbers in tris on no more in polys to imagine in game performances.
It's also a good reference for new modelers or veterans who work for community factions or for themselves and it would avoid disturbing poor DeVs asking them how should an object does as tricount. (I think Tonnie is a good example :mrgreen

Thank you very much.

[Z-trooper]

Tri count guidelines are pretty much useless as it really depends on the vehicle.

However, to give a triangle roof: 12K which is the most detailed vehicles in PR.
That being said, 12k shouldn't be used on a fishing boat, there should be a reason for it.

Really the best thing to do is post up wireframe shots along with tri counts so we can take a look at it.