Track poly count limit

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Leadbest
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Inscription : 28 juil. 2003 12:15

Track poly count limit

Message par Leadbest »

I need to know the limit for track polygons. Can the POD engine handle 20,000 if I use visibility carefully?

Im working on something that might be fun, but not very original.

Also, how many .tga files can I use? I forget how many or why there might be a problem.

Thx
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Skubidou
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Message par Skubidou »

Hello,

The polygon limit doesn't care about the number of sectors, or the maximum number polygons show at the same time... The limit come from the memory allocated by the pod engine, and is for the for the entire track.

The number limit is between 15.000 and 17.000. It depend also on animations, ..., so in the Sik plugin, i think you can use 17.000 polygons because their are no animation. Don't forget pod use 4 sides polygon as 1 polygone, so if you use 17.000 4 sides polygons, it correspond to 34.000 3 sides polygons in Max...

For the texture, the limits is 20 TGA if you want to be compatible with 3Dfx cards. In D3D, i have made a test with 40 TGA without errors, execpt 2 TGA overwriting the sky and Background, but this can be resolved by applying again the sky and Baground in the 'normal' texture at the position needed to overwrite the sky and background...

Skubidou:~
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Vortex
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Message par Vortex »

Hmmm, what are you up to Leadbest? 8) Cookin' up a stew? :D
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Thanks Skubi. If I understand you correctly, a 20,000 triangle in Max should be ok?

Im sure Skubi has an idea of what Im doing, because without his ability I would not be attempting this. I hate texturing, nuff said. :P

I cant say when I might finish this, or even if I can at this time, but I am combining the toughest sections of some original tracks to create a ghosters nightmare.

I havent even glued anything together yet, still trying to get a suitable layout going. This is probably close to what it will look like, expect changes.

Image

So far around 13,500 triangles, but reverse is impossible until I make alternate routes.

Ive wanted to do this for a long time, so Im giving it a go.
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Skubidou
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Message par Skubidou »

Hehe LB, great idea ;)

Normally, if i don't make errors (Sik, Hallou?), you can use 20.000 triangles in Max, if minimum 6000 of them are part a quadri (with an invisible edge), this should work in pod. And the max i have exported use the invisible edge, so don't forget to put 'use quadri' or something like that in the Sik Plugin, because if you don't select it, the plugin will only create triangles, even those with invisble edge.

Skubidou:~
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Gotcha!

Thx for the quick answer! 8)
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Siklist
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Message par Siklist »

Yup. You can also test the poly count with the bl4viewer and compare it with the Arcade track which is close to the limit.
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Well I now hava a working model, but I need to do a ton of editing to get the junctions sewed together correctly.

So far everything works, the magnetic rail-gun is a lot faster than its supposed to be though, I guess I can live with it.
One problem is the Lake section, I forgot you need Arakn to clear the bridge... I might make a change to allow Shark through cuz I dont think using arakn will be much fun for the rest of the track.

This SOB took 29 .tga to make, to allow for original textures per section. I might try and change this, I havent decided...

Once I get forward mode done, Ill try and figure out a reverse path... gonna be interesting.

Before anyone asks, I say it now. This might take me quite a while to finish... :P When the time comes, Ill be happy.

Track .BL4 is 5MB already. LOL
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Rob
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Message par Rob »

Nah Nah LEadbest !!!

Check out Algor's Lake ghost and you'll see that Shark is managing this bridge pretty well !!

He's doing 44' laps with it so I guess it's not so bad !

Just let the bridge like that it'll make the track more challenging :rob:
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Shark over the bridge!?!?!?!

I never thought it would be possible.

For guys like you two this track will be easy, LOL.
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Dfg
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ahah excellent

Message par Dfg »

you made it !
I remember talking about this with someone a while ago .... I can't remember who it was but I wanted to do this too !!!! still, I do not have max so I won't do it :)
good luck LB !

and sure ! lake bridge with a shark is possible !
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Vortex
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Message par Vortex »

I knew this was coming! I knew it! You can't do anything the NORMAL way, can you? hehe ;-) On the other hand, I'm no fan of ghosting (though I'd did manage to post quicker ghosts for Natura & Everest than Algor -- CORRECTION, I just checked the gallery and I must have pissed him off, cuz he just be my ghosts by another 2 seconds each, lol), so I won't really care. I'll just be happy to see me hit the wall or slide off the track in every corner. WOOHOO!! I can't wait.
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Yeah, LOL.

I was asking Skubi for help on this about a year ago, finally got some time to work on it.

I lost a few hours today when my export kept making Pod crash. Had to go back 9 damned revisions to get a working model!!! I still dont know what was wrong.

I have quite a bit of fixing to do, this is still a mess, but fun!

Btw, I think at least 3 or 4 good tracks like this are possible. But it is tough to sew togethr the pieces.
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Algor38
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Message par Algor38 »

eheh ! I have been in the top-ten on Lake with the shark, but impossible to do better than the Arakn...

Cool, lots of great futur tracks ! :)
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Skubidou
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Message par Skubidou »

No Algor, this will not be future trackS, but only ONE track, even if you see several track on the jpeg ;)

When LB asked me for the tracks, i was also thinking making a track from diferrent old tracks, but my idea was more complex and will be impossible with the pod engine (i would need twice the number polygons needed by LB).

Skubidou:~
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Algor38
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Message par Algor38 »

ah ok ok...

So I must do my lot of tracks ;)
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Skubidou
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Message par Skubidou »

No, you are only allow to make reskins ;)

Skubidou:~
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Im interested Skubi, tell me what you were thinking of making!!!
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Leadbest
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Message par Leadbest »

Its almost done. Just a few bugs to kill.

Aptly named Forgetit. Meaning everything you used to know about your favorite track... LOL.

Image
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Skubidou
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Message par Skubidou »

I hope the green color is only for the map and that you don't have put pod everywhere, whith no grip, or this track will be really a nightmare ;)

For my idea, i tried to put some jpeg on my web to explain it, but free ftp is completely out. So...

My idea was to make a track like the one you are making (perhaps not only with nightmare section of old tracks ;) ), but the transition between each portion would be more surprising. How to explain that without a picture? The idea was like in film, when you have 'window' to another world...you see nothing, except the track you are running on, but when you arrived at the 'window', you see during a second the 2 tracks one on each other, and then you are running on the 'new' track, and to make the thing more difficult, image the 'normal' way of the track is a turn on right, you arrived on the 'new' track with a turn on left :D I have never tried it, but i think this should be possible using sector visibily list, making some little sector one after each other. When you are in the first sector, you see the normal track, when you enter the second sector (1 meter further), you see the new track, when entering the third one, you see the 2 tracks, when after there, you enter the new track...only see it and run on it. The only problem is that when you enter in the new track, you are also in the sector of the old track (part you are not runing on normally), but this could be also corrected by modifying the Sector limits in the bl4 (something not avalaible in the Sik plugin, because this should normally not be modifyed ;) )

The problem with the pod engine is that even if i don't run on some part of the track, i have to put them in the BL4 to be seen, so i will double the number of polygons used...

Skubidou:~
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