Why? That's a lot've extra work for a very small performance increase...

then why lower the polycount? 'That's a lot've extra work for a very small performance increase...'

If you're doing a good job in the first place, then you're taking the time to get a good, optimized polycount. Anything under 3000 tris runs just fine on a reasonably fast computer, provided you're not having dozens on the screen at once. LODs might occasionally be useful for something that's very high-poly at the highest LOD, I'll be the first to admit, but if you're making something performance-draining in the first place, you'd better have a very good reason

they are alittle high i am (or was) working on two model at th same time one high ploy one low poly, the ones pictured are currently sitting around the 8K mark but that will be much reduced in the low poly model i usually aim for around 1000 polys in my models.

If you just took the guns alone and made them much more simplistic (and let the skin do the work, like it should), you'd probably save 1K polys right there- those guns are hideously over-detailed for FL polycount specs. Don't get me wrong- they look kewl- but they could look almost as good if they were much lower on the polycount but skinned well. I'd save the polys for the curves and the detail areas- I really like those louvered vents on the designs and the curving arcs really make the designs work. You can reduce polycount in a number of ways there, but it's definately the area where you'd want to work carefully to use selective welding, etc. to make the minimal work out best. I'm not sure you can make these designs look accurate at 1000, myself, but I wouldn't mind seeing them at 3K - 4K, which I think is achievable without losing much if any essential detail or making the curves look too obviously chunky...

1000 polys would be an excellent LOD at maybe 1k,the reason FL HAS lod's is because it has _massive_ encounters,and if you had 15x or 20x 3000 polys on screen it would add up rather quick,but with the way the LODs work in stock FL it really averages much lower,depending on your distance from every on-screen ship.i think all of the experience mod builders who work with custom factions with their own ships will tell you if you intend to have large groups of NPCs flying custom ships they'd better be low-poly (outdated advice now really,it's sinfully easy with the new exporter to just make a couple simplified LOD's and tweak their ranges to your satisfaction in the ini )

Heh... I took the opposite approach... instead of making more ships, I just made the AI a lot smarter At any rate, I'd agree that LODs are much, much more practical with the new Exporter than they were, but we're still talking double to treble the work per model here. Personally, I've been playing with the LOD settings in FL, and I've found that pushing the highest LOD up to the maximum engagement range results in a lot less "stutter" on the client end than leaving the LODs intact. FL doesn't seem to cache every LOD into RAM, even if it's been ordered to pre-cache a given CMP

I know exactly what you are talking about the guns are way over detailed for game model and will be made simpler, the models pictured were really the prototype models i started for my animation i was creating, they didnt really start as a game model but then i figured what the hell, the low poly model with look nearly exactly the same but with (as you said) the texture taking care of the detail. . i hope to get back to work on htese babies very soon, along with my other craft i have sitting around, i think i started a few freighters, and even a cap ship, the freighters and cap ship where originally designed for a mod someone was making but it fell through. maybe someone else needs a cap ship lol

not every LOD or none at all?I am curious what is the optimum?2 or 3 perhaps?certainly not four!although i notice tradelanes have 6...could LOD's help reduce the up-close faceting on planets horizons w/o creating a stutter problem i'm wondering(especially with 50Kps tradelanes,lol!) or even better,map terrain features like Mars' Olympus Mons volcano?

Bah...LOD's are a waste of time so don't bother.

If you're going to have lot's of NPC's flying the ship, and are that concerned about polys, then make one detailed version for players and a lower poly version for NPC's. You never get close enough to NPC's to see the detail and so you won't miss it anyway.

That said I usually keep my polys under 4000 so I don't normally have to worry.

Now let's see some finished work and take this poly talk somewhere else .

come on, you just hate the engine. you can admit it, we're not going to boil you alive or anything *heating a large cast iron pot of water ala looney toons*

Meh?

Hate the engine?

Considering how much working stuff I've made/am making for this engine... nope, I'd say it's a love affair. In this case, the "girl" is a wee bit tricky and occasionally fickle, but once you know what you're doing (heh) you're going get the results you want

Anyhow, back on topic, which is not about polycount... it's about art. I don't have the skins done (I plan to do multiple versions) so I hope that everybody will just take my word for it- this WIP shot will be flyable soonish

This lil' beauty, which I'm calling the Foxbat, is currently at 1484 polys. I'm planning this as the long-desired-but-never-seen "true" Rogue/Molly VHF, which explains why I've very deliberately borrowed a bit from those two designs. I'm pretty happy with this one (when I imagine it skinned, of course- it'll make a big difference in the feel), but I'm open to critique- this is the third model I've made, after the Light Hauler and the Purity that's really, really tight modeling-wise... and like the Light Hauler, I'm pretty happy with the design, which is a good mix of the incredible ungainlines of the two most commonly-seen Rogue/Molly designs.

UPDATE. I have figured out a fast-n-dirty method of doing "stressed panels" effects for uvmapped skins, and will be sharing that soon. You will not believe your eyes when you see the final skin on this thing- it's coming out soooo much better than expected. The method's a little tricky to set up initially, but I'm going to end up with a "template" that I can use to make literally any color variations I want with- and since I'm planning an "Irish" version for the Mollies and a "Pirate Fighter Standard Brown" version for the Rogues, this is going to be very kewl, because I'll just have to do very minor work on each skin, instead of starting from scratch. More when I can post it all up.


Second WIP... getting closer now...

Wow... this is going to be ridiculously easy... now I just gotta find an appropriate image for the side wings.


Edited by - Argh on 8/11/2005 3:54:58 PM

i like it's hull but it's pignosed,to be blunt *pun* that part doesn't look borrowed - it will look better with some skin to be sure..
i'm working on the Gunstar from the Last Starfighter (an excellent afternoon's read or video rental)
Gunstar Image

current poly count after mirroring is around 1300,although i hope to bring it up to 3 or 4 at least for lod0,which i think the original model justifies.i know,its kinda an ugly ship compared to some of the more organic models you see here,but its ugly in a deadly looking way like a luger or AK47.it's covered with thrusters(for attitude correction!)and the guns are deadly looking fixed cannons,as well as having nicely placed turrets.... besides which nothing can defeat the death-blossom!

Edited by - parabolix on 7/28/2005 7:25:57 AM

Well, this was modeled from scratch. The "pignose" was my deliberate choice to keep the ship as ugly as its "illustrious" forbears:
Bloodhound
Wolfhound

As you can see... these ships were very deliberately made with Kusari, Rheinland and Bounty Hunter references... uglified. I mean... the Wolfhound has to be one of the most deliberately ugly ships I've ever seen in a videogame- really.

So I think the pignose continues this grand tradition, but judge once it's skinned

Edited by - parabolix on 7/28/2005 7:26:43 AM