(Traffic) Signs in Games - Model or alpha texture ? Texture organization ?
polycounter lvl 18
Alright, so basically I was asked to come up with a number of different signs.
Basic Ideas:
1) Traffic signs that can be easy modular, like having a pole that one can attach almost each and every possible sign, one can imagine
2) Signs that can be put on a wall
So I was wondering, how is something like that approached with todays hardware and whatnot.
Me personally I'm a huge fan of having many things modeled out instead of using alpha planes. Mainly because I never worked in an actual game environment and just like the solid looks of a modeled out sign more than a tiny paper alpha plane displaying the same.
And ever since I read about how cheap triangles are with todays hardware I can't but think some 30-50 triangles for a simple sign won't hurt bigtime
Since there won't be 1000 of signs in a scene, so I'd figure having that modeled out will be just fine
That's me, but what do you guys think/know about such trivial items in an actual game environment. Does it become a bottleneck sooner or later, because where do you draw the line of what should be modeled out in detail and what not ?
Next question would be, either way, having chosen any of these 2 methods:
How would your best bet of organizing these textures look like ?
a) I would think that having all these signs and variations on one big texture sheet when it never ever will be shown together in one scene is not a wise idea. Cause everytime some tiny 2-3 signs will be loaded, a huge 1024 texture would be loaded too.
b) Would it be better to have one texture with the 3 variations of one specific sign combined into one texture, so only these get loaded when the asset is used ?
Premise:
-I'd want the textures to have multiple variations (3, clean, dirty, dead)
- We'd assume there will only be 2-3 signs visible in one scene at once
I'd love to hear any actual firsthand game development information from any of you guys
Much appreciated !
Basic Ideas:
1) Traffic signs that can be easy modular, like having a pole that one can attach almost each and every possible sign, one can imagine
2) Signs that can be put on a wall
So I was wondering, how is something like that approached with todays hardware and whatnot.
Me personally I'm a huge fan of having many things modeled out instead of using alpha planes. Mainly because I never worked in an actual game environment and just like the solid looks of a modeled out sign more than a tiny paper alpha plane displaying the same.
And ever since I read about how cheap triangles are with todays hardware I can't but think some 30-50 triangles for a simple sign won't hurt bigtime
Since there won't be 1000 of signs in a scene, so I'd figure having that modeled out will be just fine
That's me, but what do you guys think/know about such trivial items in an actual game environment. Does it become a bottleneck sooner or later, because where do you draw the line of what should be modeled out in detail and what not ?
Next question would be, either way, having chosen any of these 2 methods:
How would your best bet of organizing these textures look like ?
a) I would think that having all these signs and variations on one big texture sheet when it never ever will be shown together in one scene is not a wise idea. Cause everytime some tiny 2-3 signs will be loaded, a huge 1024 texture would be loaded too.
b) Would it be better to have one texture with the 3 variations of one specific sign combined into one texture, so only these get loaded when the asset is used ?
Premise:
-I'd want the textures to have multiple variations (3, clean, dirty, dead)
- We'd assume there will only be 2-3 signs visible in one scene at once
I'd love to hear any actual firsthand game development information from any of you guys
Much appreciated !
Replies
Regarding having them all on the same texture, if they are all used in the same scene, it would be better, but if only one of them is used per scene, you better off cutting them into smaller images.